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

(1) Death Panels in America: The Untold Story of the Thousands Who Die Each Year at the Whim of the Health Insurance Industry

(2) It’s the Space Race of the 21st Century..and the E.U. Increases Its Lead.

M. Wuerker. Politico.

A selection of political cartoons that matter.

Click on images to magnify.

We thank Senator Kennedy for his strength and courage. Despite his own family’s tragedies and personal wealth, he never stopped fighting one of the toughest political battles of the past century. Just one month before his tragic passing, Ted Kennedy retells his lifelong passion for health care reform in an extremely moving piece for Newsweek.

In one of the story’s most emotional and heart-shattering moments, Kennedy recalls one of his own family’s many medical battles: his then 12-year-old son Teddy’s struggle with bone cancer. While his son was undergoing the cancer treatments that eventually saved his life, Senator Kennedy encountered many fellow parents who, like the Kennedy’s, had a child with a terminal diagnosis. Unlike the Kennedy’s, however, many of these parents were faced with the torment — in the richest nation in the world — of not being able to afford the treatments that could save their own children’s lives:

“Nothing I’m enduring now can compare to hearing that my children were seriously ill. In 1973, when I was first fighting in the Senate for universal coverage, we learned that my 12-year-old son Teddy had bone cancer. He had to have his right leg amputated above the knee. Even then, the pathology report showed that some of the cancer cells were very aggressive. There were only a few long-shot options to stop it from spreading further. I decided his best chance for survival was a clinical trial involving massive doses of chemotherapy. Every three weeks, at Children’s Hospital Boston, he had to lie still for six hours while the fluid dripped into his arm. I remember watching and praying for him, all the while knowing how sick he would be for days afterward.

During those many hours at the hospital, I came to know other parents whose children had been stricken with the same deadly disease. We all hoped that our child’s life would be saved by this experimental treatment. Because we were part of a clinical trial, none of us paid for it. Then the trial was declared a success and terminated before some patients had completed their treatments. That meant families had to have insurance to cover the rest or pay for them out of pocket. Our family had the necessary resources as well as excellent insurance coverage. But other heartbroken parents pleaded with the doctors: What chance does my child have if I can only afford half of the prescribed treatments? Or two thirds? I’ve sold everything. I’ve mortgaged as much as possible. No parent should suffer that torment. Not in this country. Not in the richest country in the world.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/207406

“The biodiversity of the planet is a unique and uniquely valuable library that we have been steadily burning down — one wing at a time — before we have even cataloged all the books, let alone read them all” – John Holdren, Harvard and Woods Hole environmental scientists

Research suggests that due to factors such as environmental degradation, development, and overfishing, humans have played a major role in driving species extinction rates to 1000 times their natural, historical level. The rare extinction of a marine mammal (the first in over half an century) and one of our close cousins, the Yangtze River Dolphin of China, provides a chilling example of this.

These are the canaries in the global coal mine. We need to start taking notice. Time Reports.

Video: Humans blamed for dolphin’s extinction.

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