Pediatricians To Feds: Protect Kids From Toxic Chemicals

Have you ever purchased a toy or an outfit for a child and noticed a very strong chemical smell? How many times did you wash it to try to get that smell to go away? I know I have done it several times with my son's toys and clothes. I have washed one shirt about 15 times and the smell is just as strong as the day he received it. So please Mr. Fed, protect the kids from these strong smelling chemicals.

It seems like every week there's another scary-sounding chemical intruding into our lives: Bisphenol A in baby bottles, phthalates in plastic food containers, PBDE flame retardants in furniture and electronics, trclosan in soaps and shampoos.  But good luck trying to figure if those chemicals actually put your family at risk.

If you're tired of the lack of solid information on the health effects of chemicals — well, the nation's pediatricians are tired, too. They think the Environmental Protection Agency is doing a crummy job of protecting children and pregnant women from chemical health threats. And they're calling for a major redo of the nation's law regulating the 80,000 or so chemicals in use.

"I think there are many, many chemicals in many, many products on the market that are safe," says Jerome Paulson, a pediatrician and Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC. He's the lead author of a new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics, asking the federal government to redo the country's 35-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act. "But I say that as a leap of faith."

The problem, Paulson told Shots, is that none of us know which chemicals are safe and which are health threats, because chemicals don't have to be tested for safety before they're used in consumer products.

The pediatricians want chemicals to be tested for safety before they come on the market, the way prescription drugs are now. They also want to see a post-market surveillance system, like there is for medications, so that if health problems do start cropping up, there's a way to monitor them and respond. Most of all, they want the feds to recognize that chemicals may pose very different threats to children than they do to adults.

Kids' bodies are not like adult bodies. Children also live differently than adults. A 9-month-old spends her days on the floor, picking up things and chewing on them. And that child's physical response to chemicals in the environment changes as her body changes.


Source:  NPR - Get the details here