Sunday, 06 May 2012

• Our Toxic Environment and Autism

  
  
  The media are finally beginning to make a connection between the unbridled use of toxins in our environment and autism. One catalyst is a book, Brita Belli’s The Autism Puzzle, consists of a “terrifying look at the chemicals we eat, drink and breathe” which is “guaranteed to make your hair stand on end,” according to writer Eleanor J. Bader at Alter.net. 

  Worried about 1 in 88 children with autism now? You should be. Belli traced geographical clusters of autism cases and found higher incidence near sources of environmental pollution. “Research, Belli writes, ‘made a solid case for the fact that toxins in combination can have a unique impact on the way brains develop. It is likely not one bodily insult that’s driving up [autism] cases, but a number of contaminants and exposures acting in concert.’”

  So, you may have been thinking that the laws of the United States were protecting you from environmental toxins. This is not the case.

  “That there are approximately 1,300 Superfund sites on the National Priorities List—200 of them in New Jersey, the state with the highest autism rates—should both give us pause and make us furious since we know who is responsible for fouling the air, water and soil—unscrupulous businesses.”

  Well, I think that businesses will do what the law allows them to do, because they are competing against other businesses doing that too. So what needs to change is the law, currently “toothless.”

  “The Toxic Substances Control Act was first passed in 1976 and has remained essentially unchanged—that is, toothless–for 36 years. When the Act passed Congress it grandfathered in 62,000 chemicals, in essence giving a free pass to known toxins such as trichloroethylene and BPA.

  “To remedy this, Senator Frank Lautenberg has introduced the Safe Chemicals Act (S. 847), which would, for the first time, require industry to provide information on the health and safety of chemicals in order for them to be introduced or remain on the market. It would further allow the EPA to take immediate action on hazardous chemicals including lead, mercury and flame retardants.”

  You can let your senators know that you want them to support this act. This website will help you contact your senators.http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6639/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=9696

  Source of Bader article: http://www.alternet.org/health/155119

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