Parents must do more, demand more to protect kids from toxic poisoning

...the overwhelming majority of the 80,000 chemicals on the market have never been tested adequately for their safety to children, and scientists haven't even begun to look at the cumulative effects of these toxins on children, as their fragile brains and other organs develop.

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Subject:   Parents must do more, demand more to protect kids from toxic poisoning
Date:       Sun, 08 Oct 2000 13:56:53 -0400
From:        Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)

To:     Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
          Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation 

Dear Mr. Helliker, I thought you might like to read an article Published: Thursday, October 5, 2000 in the Pioneer Planet by Susan Berkson - Guest columnist entitled: Parents must do more, demand more to protect kids from toxic poisoning.

Sugar and spice and stuff not so nice. Dursban and snails and puppy dog tails. That's what our children are made of.

So says a recent Minnesota Health Department report about the exact multiple toxic chemicals to which Minnesota children are exposed.

The children's blood, urine and hair had measurable levels of toxins, including such pesticides as atrazine, malathion, 2,4-D and chlorpyrifos (Dursban), heavy metals like lead, arsenic and mercury, and solvents such as benzene.

Undoubtedly, kids are exposed to numerous other chemicals the study didn't measure, or which we haven't the tools to measure.

We know some of these toxins injure our children. Lead has left millions of kids brain-damaged, permanently diminishing their IQs and causing more aggressive and delinquent behavior. Nearly a million children remain lead-poisoned right now.

Mercury, too, causes brain damage at levels routinely experienced. A recent report by the National Academy of Sciences found that 60,000 pregnant women annually eat fish contaminated with mercury to a degree that can cause neurologic damage to their developing fetuses.

Pesticides have been linked by human and animal studies to possible long-term effects on the brain and nervous system, as well as children's cancer and reproductive problems.

Less is known about the effects of other toxins. In fact, the overwhelming majority of the 80,000 chemicals on the market have never been tested adequately for their safety to children, and scientists haven't even begun to look at the cumulative effects of these toxins on children, as their fragile brains and other organs develop.

Yet even with the tools we have right now, the National Academy of Sciences concluded in 1993 that children are uniquely susceptible to hazardous environmental exposures. Last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics seconded that finding.

These scientific bodies -- arguably the last word when it comes to children's health -- determined that many exposures to environmental chemicals can cause or contribute to disease and disrupt development, learning and behavior.

As the science for tracking and measuring these exposures gets better, we'll probably find the problem even worse than we now understand it.

Nonetheless, there already is evidence of harm. Childhood asthma is up by more than 40 percent since 1980. Nearly 12 million children suffer from one or more learning, developmental or behavioral disabilities.

From 1973 to 1995, brain and other nervous-system cancers associated with environmental exposures increased 53 percent in children under 5. Among teen-agers ages 15 to 19, testicular cancer increased 65 percent. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma increased 128 percent.

We can do a lot to prevent future harm. Parents can use nontoxic products to control pests and clean house. Make sure your child's school has policies in place to do the same.

Give children a varied diet, buying organic fruits and vegetables and other foods when possible. Avoid solvents used in dry cleaning and many hobbies. Ask policymakers to adopt child-based standards and to exercise precaution in decisions that could affect children's health.

And today at noon and 9 p.m., tune your radio to Minnesota Public Radio's KNOW-FM (91.1) and listen to the Westminster Town Forum as Dr. Phil Landrigan speaks on ``Children's Health and the Environment.'' Landrigan, director of the Center for Children's Health and the Environment at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, has likened exposing our children to these toxins to a mass experiment in which our children are the subjects.

Did any of us give consent?

Let Landrigan's appearance be our wake-up call and galvanize us to take action to protect our children's right to healthy homes, healthy schools and a healthy community.

Berkson (e-mail: mnchec@netscape.net) is metro coordinator for the Minnesota Children's Health Environmental Coalition.

Well Mr. Helliker, when will it be "legal" (in your opinion) to "use nontoxic products to control pests?"  If you will not allow the use of non-poisons to safely and far more effectively control pest problems - obviously you are STILL demanding that California children must continue to be POISONED!

Respectfully,  Stephen L. Tvedten

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