NEW research is demonstrating that some common chemicals all around us
may be even more harmful than previously thought. It seems that they may
damage us in ways that are transmitted generation after generation,
imperiling not only us but also our descendants.
Yet following the script of Big Tobacco a generation ago, Big Chem has,
so far, blocked any serious regulation of these endocrine disruptors, so
called because they play havoc with hormones in the body’s endocrine system.
One of the most common and alarming is bisphenol-A, better known as BPA.
The failure to regulate it means that it is unavoidable. BPA is found
in everything from plastics to canned food to A.T.M. receipts. More than
90 percent of Americans have it in their urine.
Even before the latest research showing multigeneration effects, studies
had linked BPA to breast cancer and diabetes, as well as to
hyperactivity, aggression and depression in children.
Maybe it seems surprising to read a newspaper column about chemical
safety because this isn’t an issue in the presidential campaign or even
firmly on the national agenda. It’s not the kind of thing that we in the
news media cover much.
Yet the evidence is growing that these are significant threats of a kind
that Washington continually fails to protect Americans from. The
challenge is that they involve complex science and considerable
uncertainty, and the chemical companies — like the tobacco companies
before them — create financial incentives to encourage politicians to
sit on the fence. So nothing happens.
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