HUFFINGTON
07.22.12
CHEMISTRY LESSONS
Further, disclosures are irrelevant if no tests have been done to
identify harmful effects. This is
the case for tens of thousands of
chemicals common in consumer
products. Aside from substances
designed to be ingested as food or
drug, newly developed commercial chemicals are virtually unregulated in the U.S. — until and
unless they are proven harmful.
“The burden of proof in this
country is on proving a chemical
is dangerous rather than on the
side of those who introduce the
chemical to prove that it is safe,”
says Eric Chivian, director of
Harvard Medical School’s Center
for Health and the Global Environment. Europe, he notes, has it
the other way around.
Carson expressed her own
frustration with the U.S. government’s lack of chemical regulation.” If the Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen
shall be secure against lethal
poisons distributed either by
private individuals or by public officials,” wrote Carson, “it
is surely only because our forefathers, despite their considerable wisdom and foresight, could
conceive of no such problem.”
Of course, there are also those
unintentional ingredients that
find their way into products today without anyone’s knowledge.
A study published in May suggested that peanut butter can
be a source of trace amounts of
flame retardants.
“There are always little
surprises that we’re finding,”
says Woodruff.