JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES
TOXIC
DANGERS
vidual. Researchers have calculated the cost of virtually unregulated chemical use at nearly $80
billion in annual health care costs,
lost working hours and stolen IQ
points. And such studies are far
from comprehensive.
In addition to arguing that
stiffer government regulation
would mean a poorer economy,
the general claim of the chemical industry is that there is too
little evidence to prove sufficient
harm from their products — usually because they either haven’t
looked for them or because they
don’t know exactly what to look
for, according to critics. As Joel
Tickner of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, said, “We often misinterpret the lack of proof
of harm as evidence of safety.” But
enough dangers have been discovered to raise some red flags for
a representative sample of commonly used chemicals.
Bisphenol A (BPA), phthalates
and brominated flame retardants,
for example, have earned notoriety thanks to their tightening ties
with rising rates of conditions
such as childhood cancer, obesity,
asthma and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
“Most of the toxicants we’re
HUFFINGTON
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talking about are widespread, if
not universal,” said Bruce Lanphear, an environmental health
expert at Simon Fraser University
in British Columbia. “It’s not like
just a few children are affected.”
Still, Brown’s concerns were
initially personal. After his wife
miscarried for the second time —
between the births of their two
healthy kids — he became suspicious of environmental exposures, especially after reading an
influential study that found more
than 200 industrial chemicals
coursing through umbilical cord
blood. Each new bit of information triggered more questions,
and soon Brown’s investigation
into today’s complicated chemical
environment became about more
than protecting his own family.
He grabbed a video camera and,
between shifts waiting tables at
a small town Pennsylvania res-
In 2007
Fisher-Price
recalled 83
types of toys
because of
a high level
of lead in the
paint.