Toxic Chemicals From Everyday Products Found in Rep. Terry Brown, other Michiganders

Public Health & Environmental Leaders Call for Swift Action to Phase out Dangerous Chemicals

 

November 8, 2007

 

Lansing, MI, November 8, 2007 – Three highly toxic chemicals used in everyday products were found in five Michiganders and 30 other people across the country according to a new report issued today by public interest groups. Is It In Us? Chemical Contamination in our Bodies—Toxic Trespass, Regulatory Failure and Opportunities for Action reveals widespread presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), phthalates, and bisphenol A—chemicals that have been linked to birth defects, cancer, learning disabilities, infertility, asthma, and other health impacts.

The Michigan volunteers tested higher than the national average for Bisphenol A (a chemical used in plastic) in their urine. They also were also above the national average for several phthalates, chemicals widely used as plasticizers. All of the participants also had flame retardants in their blood.

“Very few of us realize how many toxins we are carrying around in our bodies,” said Representative Terry Brown (Pigeon), one of the study’s participants: “We need to become more aware of that – and we need to fight to make sure the only substances we allow into our products and our environment are ones that are safe for us. Participating in the project with my son really brought home the reality not only of the toxic burden that I myself am carrying, but of the one we are leaving for our children.”

Michigan participants were Rep. Brown and his 12 year-old son, Bryan Brown; Donele Wilkins, Executive Director of Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, and her 18 year-old son, Payton; and, Laura Varon Brown, editor of the Detroit Free Press magazine, Twist.

The results showed that each Michigander is exposed to a cocktail of industrial chemicals, including deca-BDE, a chemical used to flame retard common products. Deca-BDE has been increasingly found in fish and sediment in the Great Lakes, and in the breast milk of women across the country. DecaBDE was found in all five of the Michigan participants.

“We are calling on the Michigan legislature to finish the job it started when it banned two of the toxic flame-retardants found in participants,” said Genevieve Howe, spokeswoman for the Ecology Center and Michigan Network for Children’s Environmental Health. “The legislature needs to phase out the more ubiquitous flame-retardant deca-BDE to protect the Great Lakes and our children.”

Representative Rebekah Warren (Ann Arbor) added, “As Chair of the House Committee on Great Lakes and Environment, protecting Michigan citizens from toxins and pollutants in our environment is one of my top priorities. I am committed to moving legislation forward that will phase out the use of these chemicals to further protect the health and safety of our children and our
citizens.”

Currently, industrial chemicals are not required to be tested comprehensively prior to their use in consumer products. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted a comprehensive review of the adequacy of the federal law regulating chemicals, enacted in 1976 and found the law inadequate to protect health. Further, the law has not been updated to reflect recent scientific advances, including evidence that even tiny doses of toxic chemicals may cause harm.

“The chemicals looked for and detected in this project have been linked to birth defects, asthma, cancer, learning disabilities, obesity and diabetes—conditions of urgent public health concern,” said Ted Schettler, MD, MPH, Science Director for the Science and Environmental Health Network, and a medical and public health expert. “Just as disturbing, we have no information at all about the potential health effects of many other chemicals to which we are exposed because pre-
market safety testing is not required for most of them in the US.”

Donele Wilkins, a project participant and Director of Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, concluded: “Industrial chemicals have no place in our bodies. There are far too many people – too often people of color and poor people – who suffer disproportionately from environmental pollution.”

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For more information, please contact:

Genevieve Howe, MPH, Environmental Health Campaign Director, Michigan Network for Children’s Environmental Health and Ecology Center, 734-761-3186 x115

Rep. Terry Brown (Pigeon), 517-373-0476

Rep. Rebekah Warren, Chair, Great Lakes & Environment Committee, 517-373-2577

Ted Schettler, MD, MPH, Science Director, Science and Environmental Health Network, National project’s physician of record, 734-369-4166

 

 

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