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Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
Interesting exchange this afternoon between Joe Householder, Executive Director of the Coalition for Chemical Safety, and myself in comments on my last blog post. See Mr. Householder’s comment here, and my reply here.
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
The chemical industry’s fake grassroots group formed to feign broad support for its version of reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) – the Coalition for Chemical Safety, issued a press release today touting that it’s surpassed 150 members.
I blogged earlier about how some of the small businesses it has enlisted apparently weren’t told about the Coalition backers’ actual positions on toxic chemicals.
Now a review of the 150 members that have allowed the Coalition to meet its latest “milestone” reveals it has supplemented unwitting small businesses with dozens of agriculture-related companies and associations – despite the fact that TSCA doesn’t regulate ag chemicals!
Who knew that growing astroturf requires pesticides?? (more…)
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
The “identify-that-quote” contest I posted yesterday attracted quite a few responses, some as comments on the post, others in emails to me. Most people were on the right track in thinking that it was said decades ago, though one guess was of someone in the last decade. (I have to agree it does read like something EU Commissioner Margot Wallstrom might have said.)
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
No prize offered, but here’s a little contest. Who can guess who said the following, in what context and when — without cheating by googling a phrase from it? Answer provided tomorrow.
“Most Americans had no idea, until relatively recently, that they were living so dangerously. They had no idea that when they went to work in the morning, or when they ate their breakfast — that when they did things they had to do to earn a living and keep themselves alive and well — that when they did things as ordinary, as innocent, and as essential as eat, drink, breathe, or touch, they could, in fact, be laying their lives on the line. They had no idea that, without their knowledge or consent, they were engaging in a grim game of chemical roulette whose result they would not know until many years later.”
[Spoiler alert: Here’s a link to the answer.]
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
After EPA announced yesterday that it will deny certain confidential business information (CBI) claims that have masked the identity of risky chemicals, two chemical industry trade associations responded favorably, saying they “welcome” the move as “the right thing to do.”
Entirely missing from their responses, however, was any acknowledgment of the fact that the EPA policy shift would not have been necessary but for the huge number of illegitimate CBI claims made by none other than the member companies of those same trade associations. In a classic case of industry-speak, the companies who have been effectively stealing information from the public about their chemicals try to obscure their nefarious role by now saying they welcome the new alarm system they have forced EPA to install.
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
The Safer Chemicals Healthy Families campaign, of which EDF is a founding member, is releasing an important report today: “The Health Case for Reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act.” This report connects the growing number of dots linking chemical exposures to a number of serious chronic diseases that are rising in incidence. These include certain types of cancer, including childhood cancers; learning and developmental disabilities; Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease; reproductive health and fertility problems in both women and men; and asthma.
The report provides a succinct review of the state of the science in each of these areas, and argues that the U.S. has an opportunity to help ameliorate both the rise in these chronic diseases and their associated health care costs — by enacting comprehensive reform of our nation’s policies addressing the safety of chemicals.
Check out the report and news release.
