{"id":1826,"date":"2012-05-06T16:36:09","date_gmt":"2012-05-06T21:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/nanotechnology\/?p=1826"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:01:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:01:21","slug":"the-truth-will-out-chemical-industrys-deceptive-tactics-are-eventually-exposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2012\/05\/06\/the-truth-will-out-chemical-industrys-deceptive-tactics-are-eventually-exposed\/","title":{"rendered":"The truth will out: Chemical industry\u2019s deceptive tactics are eventually exposed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D.<\/em>, is a Senior Scientist.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard not to get cynical in Washington, DC these days.\u00a0 Just this past week, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) hosted an ice cream social on Capitol Hill<\/a> \u2013 I kid you not.\u00a0 ACC\u2019s beckoning slogan:\u00a0 \u201cJoin and learn about the benefits of chlorine chemistry and enjoy a tasty treat.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m told hundreds of House staffers partook of this propaganda fest, at least the tasty treat part.\u00a0 My initial reaction?\u00a0 How can health and environmental advocates hope to compete?\u00a0 Especially if one can successfully curry favor merely by offering a scoop of a staffer\u2019s favorite flavor.<\/p>\n

But just as I began to despair, Part I of a major expos\u00e9<\/a> on a far more serious campaign of deception by the chemical industry ran on the front page of the Sunday Chicago Tribune<\/em>.\u00a0 (Actually, the article occupies virtually the entire front page<\/a> of today\u2019s edition.)\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The Chicago Tribune<\/em> story is the first in a series titled Playing with Fire<\/em>, and Part I will be followed by additional stories on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.\u00a0 The investigative reporters who deserve the credit: \u00a0Patricia Callahan<\/a>, Sam Roe<\/a> and Michael Hawthorne<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The chemicals in question are brominated flame retardants, chemicals produced in huge volumes and added to everything from furniture foam to TV and computer casings to myriad children\u2019s products<\/a>.\u00a0 The chemicals are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBTs) and have been detected in marine and terrestrial mammals, birds, fish, and invertebrates \u2013 not to mention people.\u00a0 They are strongly linked to a range of health and environmental impacts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the title of today\u2019s story in the Tribune<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Fear fans flames for chemical makers
\n<\/strong>Manufacturers of fire retardants rely on questionable testimony, front groups to push standards that boost demand for their toxic \u2014 and ineffective \u2014 products<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And here\u2019s a small excerpt that sets the stage:<\/p>\n

These powerful industries distorted science in ways that overstated the benefits of the chemicals, created a phony consumer watchdog group that stoked the public’s fear of fire and helped organize and steer an association of top fire officials that spent more than a decade campaigning for their cause.<\/p>\n

The deceptions of the chemical industry in this matter are multiple.\u00a0 They include the creation of a \u201ccitizen\u201d front group<\/a> called Citizens for Fire Safety<\/a> \u2013 eerily reminiscent of the \u201cCoalition for Chemical Safety,\u201d the front group that ACC set up in 2009 to create the impression of strong support for its version\u00a0of reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).\u00a0 After it was exposed as a front group<\/a>, CCS’s existence was scrubbed from the Internet.<\/p>\n

Despite its warm and fuzzy name, Citizens for Fire Safety is the creation of the three main producers of brominated flame retardant chemicals \u2013 Chemtura, Albemarle and ICL Industrial Products, which the Tribune<\/em> reports control 40% of the global flame retardant market.<\/p>\n

Another key deception?\u00a0 That the chemicals actually work.\u00a0 In a companion piece<\/a> to the front page story, the Tribune<\/em> reports that testing, including by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, found that the chemicals don\u2019t appreciably reduce the risk or slow the progression of fire.\u00a0 And they are far less effective than ready alternatives such as wrapping foam in naturally fire-resistant wool or other barrier materials, as shown in testing by Underwriters Laboratory.\u00a0 See also this 2010 paper<\/a> in Reviews on Environmental Health<\/em>, co-authored by the current Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll leave you to read the Tribune<\/em> series for more details.\u00a0 I\u2019ll close by simply quoting Launcelot from Shakespeare\u2019s Merchant of Venice:\u00a0 The truth will out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist. It\u2019s hard not to get cynical in Washington, DC these days.\u00a0 Just this past week, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) hosted an ice cream social on Capitol Hill \u2013 I kid you not.\u00a0 ACC\u2019s beckoning slogan:\u00a0 \u201cJoin and learn about the benefits of chlorine chemistry and enjoy a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009,56093],"tags":[39150,5014,5010,731,5021,39156],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-science","category-industry-influence","tag-american-chemistry-council","tag-chicago-tribune","tag-flame-retardant","tag-front-group","tag-chemical-industry-tactics","tag-persistant-bioaccumulative-and-toxic-pbt"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1826"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12653,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826\/revisions\/12653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1826"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}