NEWARK — Pollution, household products and even some toys expose children and unborn babies to hundreds of life-altering chemicals, according to a parade of witnesses who testified today in support of the "Safe Chemicals Act of 2010" before a U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee in Newark.
U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) chaired the special hearing at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey on a bill he introduced in April requiring manufacturers to test and prove the safety of all industrial chemicals to keep them on the market. The bill reflects recommendations Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson issued last year to update the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA, of 1976.
"Ensuring that our children are protected from exposure to environmental threats is central to EPA’s work. Children face greater threats from environmental pollutants than adults, due to differences in their physiology, activity patterns and development," Jackson testified. "And not all children are the same. We continue to see disparities in exposures and health outcomes among the poor, African-American, Latino, Native American and other ethnic minorities."
Frederica Perera, director of the Columbia University Center for Children’s Environmental Health Studies, testified about studies of pregnant women and their children in New York City, showing the exposure cutting across race and classes. The research found 80 to 100 percent of subjects tested positive for four specific toxins linked to disrupting the human endocrine system — glands that secret hormones into the bloodstream to regulate metabolism, growth and development, among other functions.
"Our data confirm that these chemicals are ubiquitous in the environment," Perera said. "Our data and those of many others support a preventative chemical policy to protect our youngest and most susceptible population."
The chemicals studied included phthalates, which are used in plastics; bisphenol A, which is used in plastic water bottles and the lining of food cans; polybrominated diphenyl ethers, which are used in flame retardants, and chlorpyrifos, an insecticide phased out in 2001.
The Safe Chemicals Act has stalled in Congress amid opposition from industry groups that support updating the TSCA, but contend the bill as drafted will detract from safety advances, impede innovation and harm jobs. Cal Dooley, president of the American Chemistry Council, warned that the safety standard in the bill sets "an impossibly high hurdle for all chemicals in commerce" that would produce significant technical, bureaucratic and commercial barriers.
"We are committed to giving the EPA the tools needed to ensure the safety of chemicals. Let’s get all the studies in, let’s get all the data reviewed and come up with answers," said Hal Bozarth of the Chemical Council of New Jersey.
The TSCA currently permits the EPA to require safety testing on a chemical only when evidence surfaces that it is dangerous. Jackson and Lautenberg said the EPA has been able to require testing for only 200 of the more than 84,000 chemicals registered in the United States, and has been able to ban only five dangerous substances.
Sanjay Gupta, the medical correspondent for CNN, testified that the current system presumes a chemical is safe until it is proven harmful, noting the banned insecticide DDT was initially thought to be safe.
"I’m not here to say all chemicals are bad in all circumstances," Gupta said. "You can even make a case that DDT has a role in preventing malaria in poor, tropical countries where malaria kills a lot of children. But the stories of DDT and lead show us what we don’t know really can hurt us."