Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.

• Albert Einstein

Imagine that the next time you have an illness your doctor prescribes a heavy dose of antibiotics for which no pharmaceutical company, lab or other party knows anything about. Nobody knows of the potential side-effects; nobody knows the proper dosage, and nobody knows if prolonged use will cause any complications. Thankfully, this is a situation that rarely transpires during one’s typical doctor visit – for the vast majority of Americans it can stay in the realm of imagination since federal regulations safeguard the public from dangerous and ineffective pharmaceuticals. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires both the stringent pre-market testing and oversight of pharmaceuticals, the complete disclosure of pre-market testing results, and the unambiguous labeling and notification of side-effects, interactions and efficacy. The USFDA has even set up a system for reporting the unforeseen side-effects for pharmaceuticals and has developed an official recall procedure (Welker-Hood 2007: 3).

Alarming as it may sound, however, when it comes to the vast majority of the over 81,000 chemicals we can encounter in our daily lives – in both sickness and in health – not only do chemical manufacturers know almost nothing about their associated human and environmental hazards, but federal regulations require almost nothing in terms of pre-marketing test data, labeling, or even the full public disclosure of ingredients (Sattler 2007). These unregulated chemicals include anything ranging from phthalate esters like BBZP used in vinyl flooring to aromatics like dichlorobenzene used in bathroom deodorizers (Baier-Anderson et al. 2010: 15). Similarly, and as a direct result, the sum of current public awareness regarding the problem of environmental chemicals is also equivalent to almost nothing. The threatening implications of this awareness and data gap, are not only severe but, absent a significant policy response, will continue to grow. In 2006, a major report prepared for the California Senate Environmental Quality Committee on the issue warned that “the scale of chemical production is immense and will continue to expand globally.” They estimate that every day 42 billion pounds of chemicals are either produced in or imported to the U.S. alone, and that, globally, chemical production will approximately double every 25 years. Already, at current chemical production levels, the U.S. EPA has found that 700 or more chemicals are accumulating in human tissues. Further, a large proportion of these chemicals are being introduced to the nascent organ systems of fetuses and infants via their mother’s bloodstream and breast milk (Wilson 2006: xii).

This series aims to identify the cost of inaction and the promise of chemical regulatory reform.

Enjoy the marinade,

- Matt