Earlier this year, Congress introduced bills to overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), but so far no action has been taken on these bills. According to more doctors, this is a mistake.
“I have treated thousands of patients,” said Dr. Linda Giudice of the University of California, San Francisco, “…including young men with very abnormal sperm counts or a history of testicular cancer, women as young as 17 and already in menopause, little girls with the onset of puberty at six or eight. There is increasing evidence that environmental contaminants may be playing a role in these disorders.”
Research indicates that obesity and exposure to chemicals could be encouraging early puberty in girls in the United States and Europe. Pediatrics reports that more girls are showing breast development when they’re 7 or 8 years old, and a study in Denmark found that girls are developing a year earlier than they were in 1991. Obesity is considered a factor, but many researchers are also concerned that chemicals like BPA and phthalates could also be playing a role.
Several organizations, including the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, the TSCA is far out of date and needs to be changed. “Current law is more than 30 years old,” said Cal Dooley, president and chief executive officer of the ACC, “and the law must be updated to keep pace with science.” The organization proposed 10 principles for effective chemicals management, including a call for reducing risks to children, but the government is dragging its feet.
New Jersey Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, in a press release introducing his “Safe Chemicals Act,” asserted, “America’s system for regulating industrial chemicals is broken. Parents are afraid because hundreds of untested chemicals are found in their children’s bodies. EPA does not have the tools to act on dangerous chemicals and the chemical industry has asked for stronger laws so that their customers are assured their products are safe.” The Senator’s proposed act would empower the EPA to “get tough” on toxic chemicals, and would place the burden of proof on chemical manufacturers to prove the safety of their chemicals before they’re sold.
Other environmental laws, like the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, have been revised to reflect the changing science and public concern about human health. Yet the TSCA remains the same as it was in the 1970s. Meanwhile, it has grandfathered in more than 60,000 industrial chemicals that were already in use in 1976 with no safety testing. New chemicals have gone straight into the market with little government oversight. In fact, according to Time Magazine, TSCA laws didn’t even give the EPA enough power to ban asbestos, a known carcinogen.
Despite the delays, many are hopeful that the Safe Cosmetics Act will eventually pass. “It’s time to stop using kids as the canaries in the coal mine,” says Dr. Alan Green, pediatrician at the Stanford School of Medicine.
While we wait for the government to take action, studies have linked toxic chemicals to asthma, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. In fact, a study out earlier this year claims the U.S. could significantly reduce rates of chronic illnesses by reforming antiquated chemical safety laws.
We can keep our homes, our food, and our personal-care products as free of chemicals as possible, but until we clean up our environment, we’re all still at risk.
Have you tried reducing your exposure to toxic chemicals? What do you think of the Safe Chemicals Act?
Photo courtesy Suat Eman via freedigitalphotos.net.
