I just replied to Stewart on item 3. Please visit our take action site here: http://bit.ly/lGvoC. You can start by signing our petition and joining our Facebook Cause for the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act: http://bit.ly/lGvoC. And of course, spread the word on both!

Also feel free to email me directly at: lisa@ewg.org. I’d be thrilled to get you going on some much-needed citizen action on TSCA reform.

Also feel free to email me directly at: lisa@ewg.org. I’d be thrilled to get you going on some much-needed citizen action on TSCA reform.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I do have one concern, though – not only does TSCA need to be updated but the methods of chemical testing should be updated as well. Current animal models provide only rudimentary data, and an imperfectly tested chemical is just as dangerous as an untested one. With all of these chemicals showing up in our systems, we should have methods that can more accurately determine a chemical’s safety, instead of relying on archaic tests that have long been proven flawed. The National Research Council has recently produced a report, “Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and Strategy” which aims to improve these tests to better ensure the safety of us, our children, and future generations. There needs to be language in the KSCA that supports and enforces the development of these improved tests, because without the modern science behind this legislation, unfortunately, health and human safety will continue to be compromised.

Already one young couple in seven needs medical help in reproduction.

Yes retrospective testing must be introduced by government, but it must be undertaken by an Agency whose staff are, and will remain, completely free of any Chemical/Pharma Corporate links in the past, present or future.
It has been shown that the FDA is staffed and run mostly by people who have worked for, or received benefits from or are likely to join later for big salaries, these big corporates whose products they are supposed to be monitoring.
I know this sounds a little naive but I believe we need a sort of ‘chemical police’ like ‘The Untouchables’ in that old TV series, staffed by men and women who are and will remain untainted by the filthy lucre of big corporates.

It clear that everyone here understands how pervasive some of these chemical toxin are.

I propose we fight back; This is a list:

1. Hire 2-3 toxicologists to take samples of dust and blood from families, in ~ 20 states or so over 300 samples.

2. Diagnose the chemicals in the families blood

3. Look for common chemicals in family blood

4. Correlate findings with known treated materials in the home.

5. Test Cases: Allow some volunteers to have there kids play on 3 flame retardant furniture/toys over a 2 week period. Have other kids playing with non chemical items. Publish data before and after on the body burden measurements (Note: Was a recent artical where kids who drank out of Plastics has BPA go up significantly)

Questions:

1. How do we pay for this?
2. How do we insure the calibrations on the equipment and the publications are not biased?

I pledge that if EWG and users will contribute, that I John Caulfield will contribute in kind to the amount of $2000, provided we can do testing over a suitable size to get real strong data on chemical burdens, and understand the modes of injestion and the time it takes to develop moderate to high levels of key chemicals in our bodies.

Regards to all,

John