10 Toxic Americans...not even born yet

A toxic stew of 287 chemicals found in the blood of ten average Americans, sampled across the country.  So reports 10 Americans, a powerful 20 minute video gone viral. What's amazing is these 10 Americans were sampled in the womb, from their umbilical cord blood.

What a great start we're giving our kids. 200 chemicals average per child. 28 different waste byproducts of the sort that are emitted from incinerators and smokestacks, 47 consumer product ingredients such as flame retardants, and 212 industrial chemicals and pesticides banned a full 30 years before the samples were taken.

What kind of damage are these particular chemicals capable of causing? According to the video, 134 of them have been found to cause cancer in laboratory studies or in people; 151 are associated with birth defects; 154 can cause hormone disruption; 186 are associated with infertility; 130 are immune system disruptors; and 158 are neurotoxins such as lead, PCBs and mercury, which can have profound effects on a developing child. (You might have noticed that that these figures add up to more than the number of chemicals found; this is because many of them have multiple toxic effects.)[1]

This study - the first of its kind - was conducted by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and has been developed into an engaging presentation delivered by EWG president Ken Cook who has shown it to Congress, major universities, and the Center for Disease Control, among others.       

The aim of 10 Americans, beyond education essential to every individual, is to raise money in support of EWG’s efforts with what was formerly titled the Kid-Safe Chemical Act, now known as the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act.

On the books now is thirty year-old legislation that is practically impotent. Currently, any chemical can be marketed that has never been found unsafe.  It is then up to the United States Environmental Protection Agency - which has it's resources already stretched thin - to demonstrate that a chemical is dangerous before it can be taken off the market. The Toxic Chemicals Safety Act would make it so that chemical companies would have to prove a chemical meets safety standards before putting it into widespread use, effectively reversing the safety requirements currently mandated of chemical companies.  Guilty until proven innocent would become the chemical law of the land.

The weak defense from chemical companies opposing this legislation is that many of these chemicals show up as parts per billion in the samples taken; such tiny amounts could hardly be considered harmful. Yet Cook points out in 10 Americans, that these tiny amounts are in fact commonplace in medications we see around us—or, at the least, advertised on television—every day.

One dose of Albuterol, at 2.1 parts per billion, will stop an asthma attack. One dose of hormones from NuvaRing, the most commonly prescribed contraceptive, is nearly 100 percent effective at 0.035 parts per billion. The normal dose of the antidepressant Paxil is 30 parts per billion.

So the small amount argument doesn't hold water. 10 Americans shows the astronomical increases over the past 40 years in cancer, birth defects and neurological disorders that can't be explained by genetic mutation alone. Increasingly we see how the environment we've created is literally killing us.

“The problem with so many toxic chemicals is they’re very difficult to avoid,” Cook concludes. “I mean, even if you buy organic milk, you’re going to find some dioxin in there because it’s in the environment. Also with some organic produce items, if they’ve been produced on land that used to grow cotton, and DDT was applied to the land before it was banned in 1970, traces of that DDT are still in the soil and it’s taken up by the plants. So there are a number of things you can’t avoid, and that’s why we need the government to take action to deal with legacy problems like DDT and, more importantly, the tens of thousands of chemicals that we haven’t controlled yet, and in some cases haven’t even studied.”

Watch the video. Tell people about it. Knowledge is power. The Toxic Chemicals Safety Act is currently in the House of Representatives. So contact your Federal Representative. In Hawaii that's The Honorable Charles Djou (808) 541-2570, 1st District and The honorable Mazie Hirono (808) 541-1986, 2nd District.

Tell them to support this important legislation, for you and your children.