America needs legislation to improve the safety of toxic chemicals, according to a coalition of advocates, scientists and health experts.
Chemicals and other environmental toxins have been implicated in diseases and disorders as varied as autism, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, and asthma.
Two bills were introduced in Congress in 2010 to improve the safety of toxic chemicals and reform the 34-year old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The outdated law only authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to call for safety testing for chemicals that have already been shown to pose health risks.
The Toxic Chemicals Safety Act in the House and the Safe Chemicals Act in the Senate would not only empower EPA to take steps to minimize risks from chemicals proven to be dangerous, but would also require safety testing of all industrial chemicals, and require businesses to prove chemicals are safe before using them. Currently, only 200 of the more than 80,000 chemicals in existence have been tested for safety.
Dr. Philip Landrigan of the Mount Sinai Medical Center has said environmental causes are strongly associated with autism.
“Over the last decade, we’ve developed very good scientific information that links three or four classes of chemicals to brain injury in babies if the exposure occurs during pregnancy,” Landrigan told Examiner.com in 2010. “We’ve found that phthalates, brominated flame retardants, and certain pesticides are linked to loss of intelligence, attention deficit disorder, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder in children.”
Dr. Sarah Janssen, a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Examiner.com in 2010 that chemicals play a role in autism. “There are concerns that many chemicals in the environment are linked to autism, in particular, heavy metals and pesticides,” Janssen said. “The passage of this (Toxic Chemicals Safety) act would make a major impact not just on autism but all neurodevelopmental disorders in children and adults.”
And at a press conference sponsored by Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families last month, a panel of experts told reporters that toxic chemicals, already linked to autism, cancer and other health problems, have also been linked to an increase in reproductive health ailments such as infertility, early puberty, decreased sperm counts, breast cancer and prostate cancer.
Tracey Woodruff, a scientist with the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California, San Francisco, told reporters that chemicals such as phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA), which are pervasive in many plastic products, can interfere with reproductive health and normal hormone function.
When asked about the role of chemicals and other environmental toxicants in autism, Woodruff told Examiner.com that the developing brain is especially vulnerable to certain chemical substances.
“Chemical prenatal exposures can adversely affect the developing brain in some way whether affecting behavioral or cognitive function,” Woodruff said.
“Mercury is an identified neurodevelopmental toxicant, meaning that a number of studies show that exposures that occur prenatally can adversely impact neurodevelopment. Phthalates have been implicated in affecting brain development in terms of how the children behave when they’re older.”
Earliest Exposures, a research project published by Washington Toxics Coalition in 2009, showed that BPA, phthalates, and mercury were present in each of the nine pregnant women tested in the study. BPA has been identified to affect development of the brain.
Molly Gray, who was pregnant at the time of the study after two miscarriages, was shocked that her mercury levels were the highest of those women tested (2.17 parts per billion) despite her vigilance in avoiding chemicals.
Gray said she avoided fish high in mercury, switched to an organic diet, and steered clear of BPA-lined cans, but still tested for multiple chemicals. She said chemicals have become ubiquitous in the environment.
“Something is wrong when I as an educated consumer am unable to protect my baby from some of these chemicals. I and all other parents should be able to walk into a store and buy what we need without winding up with products that put our families’ health at risk,” Gray said.
“Our babies our currently born already exposed to chemicals that have known health complications. What we don’t know about these chemicals is harming real people right now. Our babies today are serving as guinea pigs for chemicals in our environment.”
Andy Igrejas of Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families says America has a critical need for legislation to enable the government to act on chemicals that are already known to be harmful. He said legislation should provide health and safety information about current and new chemicals and judge chemicals against a health-based safety standard.
Igrejas said “fierce opposition” from the chemical industry as well as a busy legislative calendar derailed the bills in 2010 but he is still optimistic that Congress will review these issues in 2011. “We may actually see it revisited even if the political climate for reform appears to be less positive than it was this past year,” he said.
Igrejas said states have been leading the way in passing chemical safety legislation while Congress has failed to address the issue. In the last eight years, 18 states have passed 71 bills to address toxic chemicals in a bipartisan manner.
Gray testified in front of the Senate about the need for chemical reform last February.
“I believe that babies deserve to grow and develop in a healthy environment in utero and out. Instead, babies are born every day already exposed to toxins linked to serious health problems. ‘Safe until proven harmful’ is not good enough. I want our country to value the lives of children the same way I value and love my son,” Gray said.
“I think the health of our families should be placed above the interests of chemical companies and their lobbyists. Let’s hope that soon the idea that this generation has grown up surrounded by products made by toxic chemicals will seem as outrageous as people smoking on airplanes seems to our generation.”
The Washington Toxics Coalition has published Tips for a Healthy Pregnancy, and the University of California, San Francisco’s Toxic Matters offers recommendations on avoiding chemicals for optimal reproductive health.
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