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.
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
Tomorrow’s Federal Register will contain a short notice from EPA that partially corrects a decades-old Agency practice that has denied the public access to the identity of chemicals that present substantial risks.
This welcome action begins to pull back the curtain on the chemical secrecy that has been a hallmark of life for the public under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). As I noted in a previous post, this action is one of a host of changes needed to remedy the major excesses and abuses of confidentiality under TSCA. EPA’s action makes clear that some things can be done even as we await TSCA reform.
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
A front page article by Lyndsey Layton in yesterday’s Washington Post – spurred by an intriguing new report by the Environmental Working Group – did a great job of exposing the extent to which the identities of chemicals in widespread use are hidden from view, and of exploring some of the many adverse consequences.
Neither the article nor the report, however, had much to say about how this problem of excessive reliance on confidential business information (CBI) claims by industry might be solved, especially in the context of impending reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
In this post I’ll provide some concrete proposals for addressing this serious problem.
