By John Wear
For the Salisbury Post
I recently came across an intriguing story that has troubling implications for all of us ó children and adults alike.
The Oakland Tribune asked a couple ó Michelle Hammond and Jeremiah Holland ó if they and their children would participate in a study to measure the industrial chemicals in their bodies.
The results were surprising: Their children, Mikaela, then 5 years old, and Rowan, 18 months old, had chemical exposure levels up to seven times those found in their parents.
The story quoted Holland: “[Rowan’s] been on this planet for 18 months, and he’s loaded with a chemical I’ve never heard of. He had two-to-three times the level of flame retardants in his body that’s been known to cause thyroid dysfunction in lab rats.”
In the report, Dr. Leo Trasande, assistant director of the Center for Children’s Health and the Environment at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, surmised that industrial toxins could be leading to more childhood diseases and disorders.
“We are in an epidemic of environmentally mediated disease among American children today,” he said. “Rates of asthma, childhood cancers, birth defects and developmental disorders have exponentially increased, and it can’t be explained by changes in the human genome. So what has changed? All the chemicals we’re being exposed to.”
The president of the American Council on Science and Health, Elizabeth Whelan, disagrees. These are her words: “Trace levels of industrial chemicals in our bodies do not necessarily pose health risks.”
The fact is we do not know what the long-term effect of increased chemical exposure is, but we need to be aware of all the information we can find. That’s why I began investigating research that has been done on the subject. I found that the Environmental Working Group spearheaded a benchmark investigation, the first of its kind, a few years ago.
We have asked EWG President Ken Cook to talk to us about the problem and what we can do both individually and collectively to protect our families and our communities. Ken will talk about the study’s results at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 19, at the Center for the Environment building on the Catawba campus. The event is free and open to the public, but we do ask that people register by calling our office at 704-637-4727 or emailing Amanda Lanier at allanier@catawba.edu.
This will be an opportunity to learn about the latest thinking on how chemical pollutants can affect our health and what can be done about it. What can we do to protect our families and our communities? What products should we buy ó or not buy? How can we encourage our policy makers to make changes that will protect the most vulnerable members of our nation?
Few of us think about the chemicals in everyday products and their impact on our health. So, who’s responsible for determining whether chemicals are making their way into our bodies? The Environmental Working Group notes that “neither the government nor industry is required to run regular tests to determine what toxic chemicals are in people.” Even more disturbing, the government is not required to take action to protect our health, “even when industrial chemicals known to cause cancer, reproductive harm and neuro-developmental problems have been found in people.”
We need to arm ourselves with knowledge so we can make good decisions about products and policies that impact the health of our families and our communities. Our presentation on Feb. 19 is a good way to start that process.
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John Wear is executive director of the Center for the Environment at Catawba College.