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Are you aware that Americans are regularly exposed to toxic chemicals in electronic waste, cosmetics, plastics, toys, foods, and other places? These toxic chemicals show up in our blood and the blood of even our youngest children. Did you know that these toxic chemicals can be removed from most of the products mentioned above, and have been removed with no economic consequences for all the consumers in the European Union (EU), about 500,000,000 people?
Yet those toxic materials and products are routinely shipped to Americans. Why? We are not protected by legislation that would ban these chemicals, while millions of people in other countries are. Part of the reason for that is that our government protects the interests of the corportation, while countries in the EU protect the interests of their citizens. And why is that, you ask again? Because countries in the EU are paying for the health care of their citizens. But in the U.S., you pay for your health care—if you're lucky enough to afford health care—to a corporation. The U.S. government doesn't take as much interest in keeping you healthy as they do in countries where there is government financed universal health care.
Much of this information has been publicized in bits and pieces in the last few years. But a new book was just released that puts it all together in one place. The books is Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power by Mark Shapiro (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007).
I first heard about this book from the NPR program Fresh Air. The program is an interview with author Mark Shapiro by Fresh Air host Terry Gross. I urge you, urge you, urge you to take the time to listen to this interview. Here's NPR's description of the interview:
Fresh Air from WHYY, November 26, 2007 · Investigative reporter Mark Schapiro explains in a new book that toxic chemicals exist in many of the products we handle every day — agents that can cause cancer, genetic damage and birth defects, lacing everything from our gadgets to our toys to our beauty products.
And unlike the European Union, the U.S. doesn't require businesses to minimize them — or even to list them, so consumers can evaluate the risks. Schapiro argues that that policy isn't just bad for public health: In an increasingly green economy, he says, American businesses stand to get shut out of a huge market.
Schapiro, editorial director of the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, has written for Harper's, The Nation, Mother Jones and The Atlantic Monthly. His book is called Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products, and What's at Stake for American Power.
I followed the link to Shapiro's project site for the book at the Center for Inversigative Reporting. Resources here include an article about how the US is losing ground to the EU, a reprint from The Nation about toxic toys, a reprint from an article in Harper's showing how toxic chemicals end up in our blood and in our children's blood, and a world map of the countries that are leading the way in protecting their citizens from these toxins. There's a link to Skin Deep a cosmetics database that gives you the information about what is actually in cosmetics. The FDA does not consider this information to be needed by American consumers, so you can't find it reading the product labels.
Pann, at This Examined Life, heard the Fresh Air interview before Christmas and wrote a post I'm Getting Nothin' for Christmas
Actually, the title of this post is a bald-faced lie. OF COURSE I am going to get my children things for Christmas. I just don’t know what I can get them anymore.
Maybe it’s because I live in a media-sheltered existence, but up until now I really knew very little about the toxicity of stuff we buy. What I don’t know could still fill volumes, but now I am a little more informed. I was just listening to a podcast of Fresh Air, featuring author Mark Shapiro who has just published his book Exposed - the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products. I am not surprised to learn (though I’m still upset and alarmed nonetheless) that products made for the USA’s consumption are toxic as heck, but in Europe they actually regulate what stuff can be introduced into their countries; from toys to cosmetics. By contrast, we yokels here in the USA are
