The evidence (and casualties) are piling up
– Articles about the neurotoxic pandemic
– From Harvard… on Everyday Toxic Trespass
– Powerful article about perfumes for children
– Pesticides in flea collars harm children too
– Important news about ALL pesticides
– Someday there will be less toxic clothing
– Driveway sealants are bad for Your health
– Doctors can’t be counted on to help treat oil related illnesses
– Illnesses linked to toxic chemicals increase health care costs
– Chemically injured woman has to sleep in a tent
– Some Things We Can Do
Why do we need much better laws and regulations to protect us and future generations? Have a look at the following articles:
New research in the Lancet from Dr. Phillippe Grandjean, of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, MA, and Dr. Phillip Landrigan, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York:
“Neurodevelopmental disabilities, including autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, and other cognitive impairments, affect millions of children worldwide, and some diagnoses seem to be increasing in frequency. Industrial chemicals that injure the developing brain are among the known causes for this rise in prevalence.”
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Three articles about the neurotoxic pandemic
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Industrial chemicals ‘may cause global neurodevelopmental epidemic’
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/272633.php
A new review published in The Lancet Neurology stresses the importance of a global overhaul of regulations regarding industrial chemicals, as experts warn that child exposure to such toxins could be causing a “silent epidemic” of brain development disorders worldwide.
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“The only way to reduce toxic contamination is to ensure mandatory developmental neurotoxicity testing of existing and new chemicals before they come into the marketplace,” says Dr. Landrigan.
“Such a precautionary approach would mean that early indications of a potentially serious toxic effect would lead to strong regulations, which could be relaxed should subsequent evidence show less harm.”
Dr. Grandjean adds that until such precautions are put in place, “we are facing a pandemic of neurodevelopmental toxicity.”
Another look at the same subject:
‘Putting the next generation of brains in danger’
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/14/health/chemicals-children-brains/index.html
Dr. Philip Landrigan at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and Dr. Philippe Grandjean from Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, authors of the review published Friday in The Lancet Neurology journal, say the news is so troubling they are calling for a worldwide overhaul of the regulatory process in order to protect children’s brains.
“We know from clinical information on poisoned adult patients that these chemicals can enter the brain through the blood brain barrier and cause neurological symptoms,” said Grandjean.
“When this happens in children or during pregnancy, those chemicals are extremely toxic, because we now know that the developing brain is a uniquely vulnerable organ. Also, the effects are permanent.“
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and
More Toxic Chemicals Damaging Children’s Brains, New Study Warns
by Lynne Peeples
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/14/chemicals-brain-development_n_4790229.html
…Reduce the average IQ among all children in the U.S. by five points, however, and the impact is striking: About half as many members of that generation will be “intellectually gifted,” twice as many will be “intellectually impaired,” and billions of dollars of productivity will be lost. And that doesn’t take into account the costs of diagnosis, treatment, special education, incarceration and other indirect costs, such as an estimated rise in traffic accidents attributed to more distracted drivers….
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From Harvard… on Everyday Toxic Trespass
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Harmful, untested chemicals rife in personal care products
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/harmful-chemicals-in-personal-care-products/
…While people may assume these products are safe, their chemical ingredients are mostly untested and largely unregulated, with even known carcinogenic and endocrine disrupting chemicals still found in some formulations…
Davis delivered her talk, “Toxic Trespass: Harmful & Untested Chemicals in Everyday Products,” to a Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) audience on February 6, 2014.
Chemical exposure has been linked to rising rates in breast cancer, asthma, autism, reproductive problems, and other health issues, Davis said. Many chemicals in personal care products have never been tested for safety, and may also accumulate and interact in potentially harmful ways...
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Powerful article about perfumes for children
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Perfume: Not Child’s Play
http://www.womensvoices.org/2014/02/13/perfume-not-childs-play/
…Despite what we’d like to believe, the Food and Drug Administration does not test the ingredients in kiddie perfume or any perfume for long-term safety, despite mounting evidence about the health consequences. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics says 89% of what goes into our cosmetics has not been safety tested by any public entity…
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Pesticides in flea collars harm children too
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EPA Sued In Effort To Remove Potentially Toxic Chemicals From Fido’s Flea Collar
http://consumerist.com/2014/02/07/advocacy-group-sues-epa-to-get-chemicals-potentially-toxic-to-kids-removed-from-fidos-flea-collar/
It is the worst when our furry friends pick up fleas and then bring them into our homes. Except, it’s really not quite the worst. What’s worse? When the flea collar you buy for Fido damages your child’s brain with neurotoxins…
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Important news about ALL pesticides
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Pesticides may be more dangerous than testing reveals, study finds
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/2014/Feb/pesticides-are-more-dangerous-than-testing-of-active-ingredient-alone-reveals/
…The study suggests that inert ingredients in pesticides can magnify the effects of active ingredients, sometimes as much as 1,000-fold. Eight commercial products out of nine tested were hundreds of times more toxic than their active ingredient alone...
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Someday there will be less toxic clothing
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Greenpeace hails landmark commitment as 20 retailers now promise to detox supply chains
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2327831/primark-pledges-to-phase-out-toxic-chemicals
Fast fashion giant Primark has become the 20th retailer to pledge to phase out hazardous chemicals from its products by the end of the decade, marking a major milestone for Greenpeace’s global detox campaign.…
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Driveway sealants are bad for Your health
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Could your driveway be poisoning your kids?
http://science.kqed.org/quest/2014/01/23/could-your-driveway-be-poisoning-your-kids/
…Research shows some of it gets tracked off the parking lots and driveways and into people’s homes. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) found that the most dangerous coal tar component , a PAH chemical called benzo[a]pyrene, was in driveway dust at two suburban single-family homes at thousands of times the level that would trigger a cleanup at a toxic-waste site….
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Further research revealed that growing up with toxic dust from a coal tar-sealed parking lot next door could cause a child to face a 38-fold increase in lifetime cancer risk. It’s especially toxic to kids under age 6. The levels measured exceed those the EPA considers worthy of cleanup at toxic waste sites, because they are likely to cause cancer in more than 1 person out of every 1,000 people exposed, researchers reported….
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Doctors can’t be counted on to help treat oil related illnesses
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Alberta doctors asked to treat oilsands-related illness
Open letter a response to alleged treatment refusal in Peace River
http://norj.ca/2014/02/alberta-doctors-asked-to-treat-oilsands-related-illness/
A group of 26 organizations is calling on the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) to investigate why doctors in Peace River refused to treat oilsands-related illness after evidence emerged last month documenting treatment refusal when health problems were linked to bitumen emissions.…
and
Is the Alberta government’s ‘Tar Sands is King’ attitude silencing doctors?
http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/Blog/is-the-alberta-governments-tar-sands-is-king-/blog/48151/
When we get sick, when we experience symptoms that we’ve never seen before, we rely on doctors to tell us what’s wrong. We rely on their knowledge and training to diagnose our symptoms and tell us how to get better.
When Peace River residents went to their doctor something else happened. Their doctors refused to do the tests needed to fully diagnose the symptoms they were experiencing, and in one case the doctor’s advice was to, “move.” His actual reported comment was even more troubling: “you are just a small, little bolt in this huge robot, and you don’t matter. Move.”
The huge robot the doctor was referring to was the tar sands industry….
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Illnesses linked to toxic chemicals increase health care costs
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BPA Among Toxic Chemicals Driving Up Health Care Costs, Experts Say
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/22/bpa-health-care-costs_n_4644372.html
…Trasande’s calculations didn’t take into account other health issues that studies have begun linking to BPA exposure, such as prostate and breast cancers, asthma, migraine headaches, reproductive disorders and behavioral problems. Trasande added that he was conservative in what he considered a safe level of exposure to the chemical. Scientists have warned that even minute amounts may do significant damage.
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Only a fraction of today’s health concerns, meanwhile, were included in a 2011 study by Trasande, in which he tallied $76.6 billion in children’s health care costs, lost working hours and reduced IQ points attributable to toxic chemicals and air pollutants. The $1.49 billion in childhood obesity costs that he found in his new study, for example, could be added to this total.
“Most Americans believe the government is protecting them, that chemicals are tested before they go into lipstick or food packaging. But the truth is completely the opposite: They come onto the market with little or no scrutiny,” …
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Chemically injured woman has to sleep in a tent
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Woman with chemical allergies lives outdoors to avoid illness
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=28688558#QJyjdA50zvBKwpEJ.99
“It pretty much sucks. I would like to live normally and be able to sleep in a bed and sleep in a bedroom like everyone else. But this is the way it is for now,” Gaudette said….
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Some Things We Can Do
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ASEQ-EHAQ Fundraising campaign 2012-2015: 1 Million Bricks
http://www.aseq-ehaq-en.ca/1-million-bricks.html
Mind the Store
http://mindthestore.saferchemicals.org/
Detox Fashion
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/toxics/water/what-you-can-do/
End Ecocide
http://eradicatingecocide.com/what-you-can-do/
LOVE
Seriously "Sensitive" to Pollution 