Get a grip on toxic chemicals
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Imagine all the chemicals used in televisions, computers, upholstery, car seats, building materials, even children's pajamas. Imagine that some of these chemicals migrate from products into dust and dirt, and build up in our bodies. They are found in the cord blood of newborns and in breast milk. Imagine that these chemicals are similar in structure to the notorious PCBs -- carcinogens banned from use in the late 1970s.
Now wouldn't you also imagine that these chemicals were tested and found to be safe to human health before they were allowed into our products and homes?
Unfortunately, that is not the case.
Polybrominated diphyenyl ethers are flame retardant chemicals that persist in the environment and build up in the food chain and in people. Laboratory studies link exposure to PBDEs with lowered IQ and attention problems. This summer, a study of pregnant women found that those with higher levels of PBDEs had reduced levels of thyroid hormone, which is essential to a baby's brain development.
But despite growing scientific evidence linking toxic chemical exposures to serious disease and disability, our government does not require that PBDEs -- or any of the other 80,000 chemicals on the market -- be tested for effects on human health.
That could be about to change, and two Pittsburgh members of Congress are in key positions to help make it happen.
U.S. Reps. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, and Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, sit on the House Energy and Commerce Committee that is considering the newly introduced Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010. The bill would require that all chemicals, new and existing, are shown to be safe before entering or remaining on the market, and it would set a safety standard for chemicals that is especially protective of fetal and children's health.
First Published August 11, 2010 12:00 am
