Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | T | The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)

LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG.

Article Excerpt
Byline: The Register-Guard

Chemical exposure increasing

I read with some surprise The Register-Guard's July 22 article titled "Study finds fewer chemicals in bodies." I had just read The Wall Street Journal's story on the same report of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, under the headline, "Presence of harmful chemicals in humans is broad, common."

The Journal reported that while the presence of some harmful chemicals has been reduced by legal restrictions, dozens of other chemicals, from pesticides to cosmetic fragrances, appear to be ubiquitous in Americans' blood. Children ages 6 to 11 have metabolites of a pesticide, chlorpyrifos, at more than four times the level considered safe for that age group. Pyrethroids, used in household insecticides, are reportedly in the blood of 76 percent of the population sampled. Regrettably, these other findings were not reported in The Register-Guard story, which relied on The Associated Press.

These reports followed a July 14 story in which the newspaper reported that blood from the umbilical cords of infants born in U.S. hospitals "showed an average of 200 industrial compounds, pollutants, pesticides, and other chemicals," according to the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group.

Amid these findings, the Oregon Legislature continues to debate our right to know what chemicals are being released into the environment by routine commercial and industrial processes. Is there any right more fundamental than the right to know such things, so that we can reach our own conclusions as to...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!