The Health Case for Reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act: Executive Summary

This a compelling new report put out last month by Safer Chemicals Healthy Families.  It created quite a stir in the media so I wanted to be sure my readers had a chance to read it for themselves and take action.  If you are tired of the governments lack of concern regarding the dangers of toxic chemicals in our homes, speak up on behalf of chemical reform by adding your name to the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families campaign.

The Health Case for Reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act: Executive Summary

There is growing agreement across the political spectrum that the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976 does not adequately protect Americans from toxic chemicals. In the 34 years since TSCA was enacted, the EPA has been able to require testing on just 200 of the more than 80,000 chemicals produced and used in the U.S., and just five chemicals have been regulated under this law. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson has asked Congress to provide her agency with better chemical management tools for safeguarding our nation’s health.[1]

Much has changed since TSCA became law more than 30 years ago. Scientists have developed a more refined understanding of how some chemicals can cause and contribute to serious illness, including cancer, reproductive and developmental disorders, neurologic diseases, and asthma.

The Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition believes that, by reforming TSCA, we can reduce our exposure to toxic chemicals, improve our nation’s health, and lower the cost of health care. This report documents some of the scientific findings and economic analysis underlying our position.

Chronic disease is on the rise

More than 30 years of environmental health studies have led to a growing consensus that chemicals are playing a role in the incidence and prevalence of many diseases and disorders in our country, including:

•Leukemia, brain cancer, and other childhood cancers, which have increased by more than 20% since 1975.[2]

•Breast cancer, which went up by 40% between 1973 and 1998.[3] While breast cancer rates have declined since 2003, a woman’s lifetime risk of breast cancer is now one in eight, up from one in ten in 1973.[4]

•Asthma, which approximately doubled in prevalence between 1980 and 1995 and has stayed at the elevated rate.[5][6]

•Difficulty in conceiving and maintaining a pregnancy affected 40% more women in 2002 than in 1982. The incidence of reported difficulty has almost doubled in younger women, ages 18–25.[7][8][9]

•The birth defect resulting in undescended testes, which has increased 200% between 1970 and 1993.[10]

•Autism, the diagnosis of which has increased more than 10 times in the last 15 years.[11]

The health and economic benefits of reforming TSCA

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 133 million people in the U.S.—almost half of all Americans—are now living with these and other chronic diseases and conditions, which now account for 70% of deaths and 75% of U.S. health care costs.[12]

Estimates of the proportion of the disease burden that can be attributed to chemicals vary widely, ranging from 1% of all disease[13] to 5% of childhood cancer[14] to 10% of diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and neurodevelopmental deficits[15] to 30% of childhood asthma.[14] Whatever the actual contribution, effective chemical policy reform will incorporate the last 30 years of science to reduce the chemical exposures that contribute to the rising incidence of chronic disease. And any decline in the incidence of chronic diseases can also be expected to bring health care cost savings. Even if chemical policy reform leads to reductions in toxic chemical exposures that translate into just a tenth of one percent reduction of health care costs, it would save the U.S. health care system an estimated $5 billion every year.

The U.S. now spends over $7,000 per person per year directly on health care.[12] This sum does not include the many other kinds of costs, such as the costs of raising a child with a severe learning disability or coping with a young mother’s breast cancer diagnosis. Chemical policy reform holds the promise of reducing the economic, social and personal costs of chronic disease by creating a more healthy future for all Americans.

For more information and to take action now, please visit Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families.
For alternative Green NonToxic cleaners, please click here.

Citations:

1.^U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, “EPA Administrator Jackson Unveils New Administration Framework for Chemical Management Reform in the United States,” http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/D07993FDCF801C-2285257640005D27A6 (accessed November 8, 2009)

2.^Tracey J. Woodruff, et al., America’s Children and the Environment, (Washington, DC: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2008)

3.^Holly L. Howe, et al., “Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer (1973 through 1998), Featuring Cancers with Recent Increasing Trends,” Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 93, no. 11 (June 2001): 824–42

4.^Janet Gray, ed, State of the Evidence: The Connection Between Breast Cancer and the Environment, (San Francisco: Breast Cancer Fund, 2008)

5.^Tracey J. Woodruff, et al., “Trends in Environmentally Related Childhood Illnesses,” Pediatrics, 113, no. 4 (April 2004): 1133– 1140

6.^Jeanne E. Moorman, et al., “National Surveillance for Asthma, United States 1980–2004,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5608a1.htm (November 1, 2009)

7.^Anjani Chandra and Elizabeth Hervey Stephen, “Impaired Fecundity in the United States: 1982–1995,” Family Planning Perspectives, 30, no 1, (1998): 34–42

8.^Anjani Chandra, et al., “Fertility, Family Planning and Reproductive Health of US Women: Data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth,” Vital and Health Statistics, 23, no. 25 (2005)

9.^Kate Brett, “Fecundity in 2002 National Survey of Family Growth Women 15–24 Years of Age”, Hyattsville, MD, National Center for Health Statistics (2008)

10.^Leonard J. Paulozzi, “International Trends in Rates of Hypospadias and Cryptorchidism,” Environmental Health Perspectives, 107, no. 4, (1999): 297–302

11.^National Institute of Mental Health, “NIMH’s Response to New Autism Prevalence Estimate,” http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/updates/2009/nimhs-response-tonew-autism-prevalence-estimate.shtml (November 4, 2009)

12.^ abNational Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, The Power of Prevention: Chronic Disease...the Public Health Challenge of the 21st Century, (Washington, DC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009)

13.^Commission of the European Communities, “Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council Concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restrictions of Chemicals (REACH), establishing European Chemicals Agency and Amending Directive 1999/45/EC and Regulation (EC) on Persistent Organic Pollutants: Extended Impact Assessment.” (October 29, 2003): 30

14.^ abPhilip J. Landrigan, et al., “Environmental Pollutants and Disease in American Children: Estimates of Morbidity, Mortality, and Costs for Lead Poisoning, Asthma, Cancer, and Developmental Disabilities,” Environmental Health Perspectives, 110, No. 7 (July 2002): 721–8

15.^Tom Muir and Mike Zegarac, “Societal Costs of Exposure to Toxic Substances: Economic and Health Costs of Four Case Studies That Are Candidates for Environmental Causation,” Environmental Health Perspectives Supplements, 109, No. S6 (December 2001): 885–903

WHITE SUGAR…SWEET TREAT OR TOXIC TRICK?

What is it? Sucrose.
This is another name for plain old refined white sugar
Why eliminate it?  
When we refine sugar, we remove every nutrient that comes with it in nature that helps our bodies use it to promote good health.

Isn’t it interesting how words can be used! A “refined” person is defined as one who is cultured and has cultivated fine manners. The word “refined” as misapplied to foods would seem to mean that the food has been freed of impurities or unwanted ingredients. In fact just the opposite is true. What refined sugar, refined flour, and refined rice have in common is that they all have been stripped of the most
important nutrients. They actually provide negative nutrition, meaning that your body has to work harder to utilize or eliminate them and so uses up other nutrients in trying to do so. Over time they all also cause health problems.

When little Hawaiian kids would to go out to the fields and chew on the canes, none of them got a bunch of cavities; they didn’t get a sugar high, or hypoglycemia. This is because in the natural form, it was a whole food and it contained all the vitamins and minerals needed to use the sugar properly. An influx of sugar, sucrose, into the bloodstream upsets the body's blood-sugar balance, triggering the release of extra insulin, which the body uses to keep blood-sugar at a constant and safe level and which inhibits the release of growth hormones. That extra insulin means that your body is not burning the sugar and that promotes the storage of fat, so that when you eat sweets high in sugar, you're paving the way for rapid weight gain and elevated triglyceride levels, both of which have been linked to
cardiovascular disease.

Complex carbohydrates are absorbed more slowly, lessening the impact on blood-sugar levels. Once your body signals that it has too much sugar and the extra insulin is released, it has to take that sugar and store it. There is only a tiny storage area for that sugar, which is stored as glycogen. There isn’t enough stored to even last for a full day of activity, so it doesn’t give you much “wiggle room”, and once it is full, then the rest of that sugar is simply stored as saturated fat. Now you know one of the reasons you may not be able to maintain your weight. It can be so frustrating.
Another problem with a high insulin level is that it also depresses the immune system. This is not something you want to happen if you want to avoid disease. Just think of how many times you or someone you know has worked and fretted over a party, wedding, holiday meal wanting it to be perfect, and got terribly stressed. At those times most of us reach for the comfort foods, sweets, great rolls, and sodas. Many times that just set them up to get sick because it compromised their immune systems.

Each time we eat, insulin is released into the bloodstream. This vital hormone, secreted by special cells in the pancreas, encourages our tissues our muscles in particular - to gobble up the glucose surging through the bloodstream after we eat a meal. Insulin has many other vital roles as well. That's good news, because glucose hanging around in the blood is dangerous stuff. It can stick to proteins and destroy their ability to do their job. Kidney damage, blindness, and amputations may result.

But after a meal, insulin stops the liver from releasing any fat, a potential metabolic fuel, into the blood. Why after a meal? It turns out that just like glucose, these fats, released as triglycerides, are dangerous if they hang about in the blood too long. Because refined dietary sugar is so lacking in minerals, vitamins, and fiber, and has such a deteriorating effect on the endocrine system, major researchers and major health organizations (American Dietetic Association and American Diabetic Association) agree that sugar consumption in America is one of the 3 major causes of degenerative disease they must draw upon the body's micro-nutrient stores in order to be metabolized into
the system.

The health dangers which habitually ingesting sugar creates are certain. Here is a list of just some of the ways sugar affect your health. It can: suppress the immune system, speed the aging process, causing wrinkles and grey hair, cause hypertension, increase total cholesterol, upset the body's mineral balance contribute to weight gain and obesity, cause drowsiness, anxiety, and decreased activity in children, contribute to diabetes, compromise the lining of the capillaries contribute to osteoporosis. contribute to hyperactivity, depression, and concentration difficulties in children, cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity, raise adrenaline levels and crankiness in children, lead to decreased glucose tolerance, produce a significant rise in triglycerides, Increase systolic blood pressure, reduce helpful high density cholesterol cause toxemia during pregnancy., promote an elevation of harmful cholesterol (HDLs). (LDLs), cause food allergies, cause hypoglycemia, cause atherosclerosis, cause kidney damage. contribute to eczema in children, contribute to a weakened defense against bacterial infection, increase the amount of fat in the liver, cause depression. cause headaches, including migraines, increase the risk of chromium deficiency, increase bacterial fermentation in the colon, lead to coronary heart disease. cause free radical formation in the bloodstream, increase the body's fluid retention., cause hormonal imbalance, cause copper deficiency. overstress the pancreas, causing damage, interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium, increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney produce an acidic stomach, cause liver cells to divide, increasing the size of the liver, increase fasting levels of blood glucose, increase blood platelet adhesiveness, promote tooth decay. cause an increase in delta, alpha and theta brain waves, which can alter the mind's ability to think clearly cause cardiovascular disease, high sugar diets compared to low sugar diets increase risk of blood clots and strokes lead to periodontal disease, high intake of SUGAR increases the risk of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

Endocrine Disruptors: How Do They Affect Us?

Well, this is another huge topic. And so to keep this blog as concise as possible, I will give you the abridged response. But again, I urge you to please do your own due diligence and learn as much as you can about endocrine disruptors.

How do they affect us? It starts before birth in the womb. What a mother has been exposed to throughout life as well as what she takes in during her pregnancy become the legacy of the next generation. Many exposures during pregnancy don’t even manifest themselves until the child reaches sexual maturity or beyond.

Children are exposed to more chemicals today than ever before. As a result we are seeing a more rapid maturation process. Doctors are seeing eight-, nine-, and ten-year-olds exhibiting signs of early puberty.

Endocrine disruption has also been linked to an increase in childhood cancers & asthma, abnormal development of sex organs; in addition, birth defects, preterm births and low birth weight babies are increasing in number. Lower IQ’s, behavior and attention issues also may be linked to endocrine disruptors.

Problems related to men’s health range from reproductive issues like low sperm count and testicular cancer to other types of cancers such as leukemia and Hodgkin’s disease; and an increase in heart disease has been seen in several dioxin-exposed populations.

There are a number of women’s health conditions that are possibly related to hormone-disrupting chemicals in the body: endometriosis, uterine fibroids, RSD, benign breast disease, PMS, ovarian cysts, thyroid issues, inability to lose weight, infertility and increase in reproductive cancers. And this is just a partial list.

Think for a minute – I bet you have friends or family members who have experienced some of the above mentioned issues. I can tell you that I personally have encountered many of them among my clients and friends, and I truly believe that this is a topic that we must treat seriously.

The information that I have been sharing with you may be alarming to some. But because it is a serious issue that historically has not gotten a lot of press, I am determined to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can. There are things we all can do to alleviate our exposures to endocrine disruptors, but people have to know that they have been exposed to them in order to be proactive about make changes. Spreading awareness is the essence of what I do…I hope you have been enlightened but what I have shared with you.