Toxic releases threaten kids - MS NBC

Activists claim children's health is in danger
MSNBC

Sept. 7, 2001 — Calling it the first ever attempt to quantify chemical emissions
that can harm children's brains and bodies, a coalition of health activists
issued a state-by-state report Thursday that says Louisiana and Texas have
the highest levels. The chemical industry defended its record, saying it's
reducing emissions and spending $100 million to study the health effects of
chemicals.


THE NATIONAL Environmental Trust, Physicians for Social Responsibility and
the Learning Disabilities Association of America devised the rankings using
data reported by industry and made available earlier this year by the
Environmental Protection Agency.
"This is the first complete snapshot we've ever had of toxic pollution in
this country that can affect the way that children's bodies and brains
develop," Jeff Wise, policy director of the National Environmental Trust,
said in a statement accompanying the report.

The industry data show that 1.2 billion pounds of chemicals that can harm
children

were released into the air and water nationwide in 1998.

Citing a 1989 federal estimate that emissions account for only 5 percent of
all chemical releases, the coalition said that translated into 24 billion
pounds of chemicals released annually. That's enough toxic chemicals to fill
railroad tanker cars stretching from New York to Albuquerque, N.M., the
coalition said.

According to the industry data, Louisiana and Texas — both home to large
petrochemical industries — emit the most developmental and neurological
toxins to air and water. Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Virginia,
Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida are also major emitters.

The states with the lowest volumes were Vermont, Hawaii, New Mexico, Rhode
Island and New Hampshire.

The report also looked at releases by counties, and found that in most of
those with the highest releases, the number of black residents exceeded the
national average.


MORE OVERSIGHT SOUGHT
The coalition acknowledged the difficulties in tying a specific emission to
a specific child's disability, but argued the data shows Americans should be
concerned.

"Now we know what we have suspected for years, that toxic chemicals are
bringing anguish to thousands of families in this country," said Larry
Silver, president of the Learning Disabilities Association and a psychiatry
professor at Georgetown University Medical Center. "These are families that
worry, work overtime and go without to take care of a child with a
developmental or neurological disability like mental retardation or learning
disabilities."

Demanding better regulatory oversight of industry, the coalition said that 2
million of America's 12 million children under 18 suffer from developmental,
learning or behavioral disabilities. These include mental retardation, birth
defects, autism and attention deficit disorder.

The report further cited recent estimates by the National Academy of
Sciences that at least 360,000 children have developmental or neurological
disabilities caused by toxic exposures.

The National Academy of Sciences report that provided those estimates urged
further research. And a second academy report this year found a link between
mercury levels and infant disabilities.

SOURCES BY INDUSTRY
The coalition report released Thursday cited the chemical industry, power
plants and producers of paper, metal and plastics as the largest emitters of
chemicals that could be harming children.

It also found that the printing industry is the largest source of air
emissions of toluene — one the most released developmental and neurological
toxins.
Environment news

Keep up with environment news: MSNBC's special section is updated
regularly

"Because many printing facilities are often closer to residential areas than
other industries, this industry and government should make greater efforts
to switch to safer technologies that present less of a potential health risk
to children nearby," according to Lynn Goldman, a pediatrician with the
Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

The coalition report was welcomed by the nation's largest teachers union.
"As the number of children classified with learning disabilities,
hyperactivity and other problems rises," the National Education Association
said in a statement, "it is critical to examine the link with increased
exposure to environmental toxins."


MSNBC environment coverage


CHEMICAL INDUSTRY'S STAND
The chemical industry said that while it had not read the report, it has
taken steps to study and reduce emissions.

"We're already doing a lot of the right things," said Frank Rathbun, a
spokesman for the American Chemistry Council. He cited a five-year, $100
million industry program to research health impacts of chemicals and a
project done in conjunction with the group Environmental Defense to evaluate
2,000 high-volume chemicals.

Rathbun said that reports critical of the chemical industry too often ignore
the benefits chemicals have brought to society through life-saving drugs and
lighter, better products.

The council endorsed a related proposal made Wednesday to build a national
health tracking network.

The nonprofit Pew Environmental Health Commission raised the idea, saying it
would help public health authorities better understand trends in chronic
diseases. The estimated cost: $275 million a year, less than a tenth of a
percent of the $325 billion that chronic disease costs annually in health
care and lost productivity, the commission said.

"We believe data generated by a national tracking program can shift the
focus from debate and speculation about disease trends to intervention and
prevention based on scientific evidence,"
Earth matters

Talk about the planet

• Environment Bulletin Board

Sandra Tirey, a chemistry council spokeswoman said in response to the
proposal. "Too much time is spent on debating and too little time is spent
on gathering factual information that can improve people's lives."

But the industry also emphasized that what's tracked should include other
potential factors, such as viral infections, poverty and nutrition.

"To be of the greatest value," Tirey said, "a national surveillance system
of this magnitude must track not only ambient environmental exposures, but
also other environmental factors that have an even greater impact on human
health."