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Saturday, December 17th, 2022

Why the U.S. Is Losing the Fight to Ban Toxic Chemicals

Author:     Neil Bedi, Sharon Lerner and Kathleen McGrory
Source:     ProPublica
Publication Date:     Dec. 14, 2022 | 7 a.m. EST
 Link: Why the U.S. Is Losing the Fight to Ban Toxic Chemicals
Stephan:   In my view, the United States faces three major problems: the first and most defining one is the corruption that arises because we have only one social priority and that is profit and the encouragement of greed. This report is one example of what I mean, and what the blatant corruption in our government has wrought. Second, is the fear of the "other" a particularly weird social affliction since we are a nation of immigrants. There is not a single man, woman, or child in the United States who is not either an immigrant or the descendant of immigrants, and that includes the Native Americans who were the first to immigrate to these shores. Racism and fear of immigrants were baked into the founding of the country, and we are nowhere near accepting that truth. Third, the fear of gender equality, a major issue we share with every other nation in the world, although some, like New Zealand, are finally attempting to accept gender equality and make it a fundamental in their culture.
Credit:Simon Bailly / ProPublica

When ProPublica published stories this fall cataloging new evidence that American chemical workers are being exposed to asbestos, readers reacted with surprise over the most simple fact: Asbestos, the killer mineral whose dangers have been known for over a century, is still legal?

Asbestos is only one of many toxic substances that are linked to problems like cancers, genetic mutations and fetal harm and that other countries have banned, but the United States has not. That includes substances like hexabromocyclododecane, a flame retardant used in some building materials that can damage fetal development and disrupt thyroid hormones, and trichloroethylene, a toxic industrial degreaser that has contaminated communities, including a whole neighborhood that suffered a string of tragic pediatric cancer cases.

Michal Freedhoff, the head of chemical regulation at the Environmental Protection Agency, concedes to decades of regulatory inaction. She says a chronic lack of funding and staffing, plus roadblocks created by the Trump administration, have hamstrung the agency in recent years. Still, Freedhoff believes in the regulatory system’s ability to protect the public from […]

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1 Comment

  1. Albus Eddie on Monday, December 19, 2022 at 5:26 am

    When the data is finally analyzed I believe that historians of culture will conclude that many of our current societal ills were generated by a deregulated petrochemical industry.