Posted on March 11, 2010 —
By Jose Bravo
José T. Bravo is Executive Director of the Just Transition Alliance based in Chula Vista, California.
Childhood obesity has received a lot of media attention lately, but the solutions in the news focus just on personal responsibility. First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative is a great start, but it only addresses eating healthy food and getting exercise. While personal responsibility is important, there are other underlying issues that contribute to the childhood obesity problem.
Scientific evidence shows that certain chemicals block our hormones and disrupt the body’s normal functions. Known “endocrine-disrupting” chemicals, this class of toxins includes PCBs, DDT, dioxin, some pesticides, and many plasticizers, like BPA. These chemicals play an important role in the global epidemic of obesity. Dr. Bruce Blumberg, professor of developmental and cell biology and pharmaceutical sciences at the University of California in Irvine believes there’s evidence that industrial pollutants are contributing to America's obesity epidemic. Dr. Blumberg calls those chemicals “obesogens.”
"Despite what we've heard, diet and exercise alone are insufficient to explain the obesity epidemic." —Dr. Bruce Bloomberg, UC Irvine
There is now strong evidence that our bodies mistake certain man-made chemicals used in plastics, food, wrappers, and fragrances, and many more items, for naturally occurring hormones that regulate the production and storage of fat cells.
“Evidence has been steadily accumulating that certain hormone-mimicking pollutants, ubiquitous in the food chain, have two previously unsuspected effects. They act on genes in the developing fetus and newborn to turn more precursor cells into fat cells, which stay with you for life. And they may alter metabolic rate, so that the body hoards calories rather than burning them…” —Retha Newbold of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals that may be linked to obesity include:
- Bisphenol A (BPA) is ubiquitous in the environment. It is used to make polycarbonate plastic water bottles, baby bottles, the linings of metal food and soft-drink cans, thermal receipt paper, and dental sealants. Studies show that mice and rats fed low doses of BPA during early development became more obese as adults than those that weren't fed the chemical. BPA leaches from food and beverage containers into what we eat and drink.
- Phthalates are plasticizers found in PVC tubing, plastic, cosmetics, shampoos, soaps, lotions, lubricants, paint, pesticides, fragrances and more. One recent study linked a type of phthalate that leaches into processed food with abdominal obesity and insulin resistance in men.
- Atrazine is a commonly used weed killer found to contaminate drinking water supplies, and exist as residue in food. After noticing an apparent overlap between areas where the weed killer is used and the prevalence of obesity, researchers conducted animal studies of the effects of low doses of atrazine. The findings suggest that atrazine may contribute to the development of insulin resistance and obesity, especially when the exposure is associated with a high-fat diet.
- Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is used to make non-stick cookware, found in grease-proof food packaging, and stain-proof coating on clothing and carpeting. Several studies show that PFOA exposure results in reduced birth weight followed by weight gain after puberty.
You can learn more about chemical obesogens here:
So what does all this have to do with environmental justice? Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. In communities of color and low-income neighborhoods where there was a history of toxic waste dumping, polluted air, and lax enforcement of environmental regulations, people started making the connection between a toxic environment and high incidence of cancer, asthma, and other health problems.
And so when people say unhealthy personal choices are the only cause of obesity – without considering things like obesogens — I start thinking about environmental justice. The obesity epidemic reminds me of the early 1990’s when the US EPA published a report called “Environmental Equity.” In this report the EPA determined that it was what people ate, smoked, and drank that was causing major illness in certain poor and ethnic communities. The EPA failed to make the connection between people getting sick, and people living in communities where there were dozens of “non point” sources of pollution and a multitude of industrial plants and abandoned toxic waste dumps. In essence, this report blamed the victim by concluding that we were the ones causing our illnesses in our communities — instead of looking at how the toxic chemicals in our communities may be harming our health.
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Posted on March 8, 2010 —
Peter Syrett, AIA, LEED® AP BD+C
Associate Principal
Senior Project Designer
Perkins+Will architects
“Regulation is bad for business” — it is an all too common refrain in the business world today. This old argument is now being used by industry to lobby against efforts to require more transparency about chemicals in the proposed reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976. I think that this is a misguided position that is blind to the growing business opportunities offered by the green building industry.
Construction has long been the cornerstone of our domestic economy. Even in today’s sluggish economy, sustainable building is a fast-growing business sector . The green building movement has grown exponentially in the last two decades. Since its inception in 1994, the United States Green Building Council’s(USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system has grown to have over 35,000 participating projects, comprising over 4.5 billion square feet of construction in all 50 states and in 91 countries.
This huge growth demonstrates that consumers understand the relationship between human health and the built environment. This can be seen in many ways, but most clearly in the growing popularity of the LEED rating system, which rewards builders for avoiding toxic chemicals. For example, there are credits that promote low VOC emitting materials and a pilot credit for avoiding the use of products that contain dioxins and halogenated organic compounds. Dioxins and halogenated organic compounds are persistent bioaccumulative toxic chemicals (PBTs) that are commonly found in building materials — and in our bodies.
Being an architect comes with many responsibilities, but none is more important than the obligation to safeguard the health and safety of the people who live and work in the buildings we create. Yet, because of the total lack of transparency in the current chemical management system, American architects cannot fully meet that obligation.
For architects to make informed, responsible decisions, chemical manufacturers must provide hazard, use, and exposure data to the EPA for all their chemicals and this data should be made available to the public. My hope is that, when Congress sets about reforming TSCA, it will ensure that all chemical data is lucid and direct, and that all chemicals that pose a known or a suspected concern to human health and the environment are clearly identified.
Each morning, you can flip to the backside of your $4.50 cereal box and read all the ingredients. This level of transparency hasn’t hurt the $500 billion a year food industry. Americans should be able to get the same information for the $10 sheet of drywall a contractor is hanging in their living room. Chemical transparency is the wave of the future — those to embrace it first will reap the most financial benefits.
Posted on March 5, 2010 —
On March 4, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held hearings on persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals (PBTs). As you may know, PBTs include many of the most dangerous substances on the planet, including dioxin, mercury, lead, and cadmium.
The hearing was notable because it demonstrated that members of Congress — both Democrats and Republicans — agree that PBTs pose serious threats to human health and the environment. A great moment was when Representative Bobby Rush mentioned that he and other members of Congress had received an extraordinary amount of mail leading up to the hearings. We can all take credit for that!
Our action alerts resulted in 1,655 people sending 5,366 letters to members of Congress before these crucial hearings. Many thousands more came from other organizations and individuals. A big Thank You to all who already sent a message to Congress. (It's not too late to send one now.)
Another important moment came when Ted Studevant, Director of the Washington State Department of Ecology, made it very clear that phasing out PBTs is possible. His state has already demonstrated success in limiting the use of mercury and lead, and banning the toxic flame retardant decaDBE. Washington State provides a common-sense model for how toxic chemical regulation could work nationally. Linda Greer from NRDC caught Congress's attention by linking breast cancer research, PBTs, and her own survival story.
"I was one of the lucky ones. My breast cancer was caught early and I am doing well. But as I do my work every day, I think of my daughter—who received whatever contaminants I had in my breast milk when I nursed her—and of her generation. . . We must protect the next generation by creating responsible and effective chemical policy today."
Still wondering why PCBs matter? Here are some blogs that will get your blood boiling:
Next hearing is March 9: Senate Environment and Public Works hearings on TSCA and business. Check back to www.saferchemicals.org for the latest.
