Carl F. Cranor's Book: Legally Poisoned

 
Legally Poisoned: How the Law Puts Us at Risk from Toxicants draws on the science of the developmental basis of disease. Diseases and dysfunctions can be predisposed or triggered by toxicants in utero or post-natally. We are all contaminated and are quite permeable to industrial compounds, including developing children and pregnant women. Babies are born with up to 200 chemical contaminants, some toxic. Yet the laws that aim to protect us simply cannot do the job because the vast percentage of industrial chemicals enters commerce without any toxicity data.

 “Legally Poisoned” argues for the substantive science and risk assessments needed to protect our health before we and our children are exposed, not afterward, turning citizens into haphazard guinea pigs as now occurs.

Cancers can be and have been caused by in utero or childhood exposures to toxicants, e.g., diethylstilbestrol, DDT, radiation, trihalomethanes and other “complete” carcinogens. Childhood leukemias can be traced to chromosomal damage that occurs in the womb as a result of paternal exposures to pesticides, solvents, plastics, petroleum products, and lead, as well as maternal exposures to paints and pigments, metal dusts, and sawdust.

Toxicants that harm the immune system, not only weaken its effectiveness in preventing a variety of dysfunctions, but they also facilitate cancer and other diseases. The developing immune system, like the brain, has once chance to develop properly, with little opportunity to correct mistakes caused by toxicants.

Neurological problems, including autism, learning dysfunctions, behavioral problems, and Parkinson’s disease can be triggered in utero or in early childhood. Pesticides and some solvents can contribute to early or later Parkinson’s disease. Autism is linked to exposures to anti-epileptic drugs, thalidomide, alcohol, pharmaceuticals for gastric ulcers, and living too close to freeways. Other neurotoxicants can cause learning, memory and behavioral problems, including lead, PCBs, brominated fire retardants, and perchlorate.

Pesticides, phthalates, and some other substances can inhibit or damage male reproductive tracts and their sperm. Experimental animal studies reveal this, but some human males exhibit reproductive tract disturbance and “feminization.” Estrogen mimicking compounds cause female reproductive diseases and dysfunctions.

Legally Poisoned, along with the National Academy of Sciences, and researchers who study the above diseases, calls for premarket testing and review of substances for toxicity before commercialization. Currently pesticides and pharmaceuticals are so reviewed, but even they stand in need of improvement since toxicants have been missed. Why wait for toxicants to cause diseases in children and adults before investigating their toxicity?

Some advocates – usually companies that create and use industrial chemical and their sympathizers—seem to believe that the current postmarket system for protecting the public is just fine. Permit the vast majority of industrial chemicals into commerce without any legally required toxicity data, and if people are harmed later, react to that with a time-consuming, science-intensive, expensive risk assessment paid for by taxpayers.

Unfortunately, while such lengthy assessments occur, more people and their children will be at risk.  Taxpayers get to pay to discover what companies should have known about and prevented before their products entered commerce. The law should require this; for the vast majority of substances, it does not.

The law permits toxic contamination of our children and ourselves with some contracting diseases and dysfunctions. The law can and should be changed for better health protections.

Carl F. Cranor