GreenSpace: The chemicals within: Just how safe are they?
What’s in your body? A number of chemicals are becoming more worrisome.
Even as the chemical industry and manufacturers tell us we are safe, the evidence against several widely used chemicals keeps mounting.
In December, Environmental Protection Agency adminstrator Lisa P. Jackson gave chilling testimony before the Senate committee on environment and public works. She said that while it’s the EPA’s job to ensure that chemicals used in products are safe, “under existing law, we cannot give that assurance.”
Of the 80,000 chemicals used in the United States, the agency has been able to require testing on only about 200 and limited use of only five. “We’ve only been able to regulate a handful of chemicals, and we know very little about the rest,” Jackson said.
Later that month, the agency announced a new “chemicals of concern” list and immediately added two - phthalates, used to make plastics flexible, and PBDEs, which are fire retardants.
Other high-profile targets include perfluorinated compounds, used to make nonstick cookware, and bisphenol A (BPA), found in hard plastics, baby bottles, sip cups, and the linings of some food cans.
Those chemicals and more have all made their way into our bodies, according to an annual biomonitoring project by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Its fourth report, looking at 212 substances, said BPA was in 90 percent of the 2,400 people sampled.
There’s a reason “toxic” chemicals are called that. Phthalates are suspected of disrupting the formation of male genitals. Animal tests suggest PBDEs can alter brain development and thyroid hormones. A recent study faulted them for reduced human fertility.
BPA has been linked to infertility, early-onset puberty and cancer - all in animal tests. A recent study of humans found it appears to cause …
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