Toxics Program Reports
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Executive Summary
Connecticut citizens are exposed to thousands of harmful toxic chemicals in the course of daily life.
Hundreds of substances that didn’t exist even 50 years ago can now be found in our blood and body tissues. However, unlike pharmaceutical drugs, most of these chemicals have not been tested for safety.
This report explores 10 types of chemicals that contaminate Connecticut’s homes and environment and put our health at risk. For each type of chemical, safer alternatives exist that can be implemented at minimal cost, or even net savings. However, the use of alternatives is not yet widespread.
Connecticut should require the use of safer alternatives for dangerous chemicals found in commerce. Such action can protect Connecticut’s environment, workers, and our families – without harming the strength of Connecticut’s business and industry community.
Chemical exposure is widespread.
• In a 2003 study, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found DEHP, a type of chemical used to add flexibility to plastic medical equipment, plastic wrap, flooring, and other items made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), in more than three-quarters of Americans tested.
• Pesticides and their breakdown products are commonly found in people. In a recent survey, the CDC found 13 different pesticides in the blood and urine of the average American (out of 23 pesticides under consideration).
• Scientists have found PBDE flame retardant chemicals (commonly added to foams, plastics, and electronics) in rapidly increasing amounts in blood, body tissues and breast milk; levels in Americans are by far the highest in the world.
• Industrial sites and waste dumps, like the Precision Plating superfund site in Vernon, contaminate Connecticut’s environment and groundwater with solvents and metals like trichloroethylene, lead and hexavalent chromium.
• Indoor air in homes can be contaminated with formaldehyde from building materials and perchloroethylene emitted from recently dry-cleaned clothing.
• Incineration of wastes containing PVC or related compounds creates dioxin, one of the most toxic substances known.
Toxic chemical exposures put our health at risk.
• DEHP exposures at levels commonly found in Americans have been linked to stunted reproductive development in baby boys and to the development of asthma in children and adults.
• In utero exposure to 2,4-D, a pesticide regularly used in lawn care, can lead to birth defects. Organophosphate pesticide exposure has been associated with miscarriage, reduced birth weight and childhood leukemia.
• PBDE flame-retardant chemicals given to newborn mice in small doses permanently impair their learning and behavior.
• The CDC estimates that at least a half million children in the U.S. suffer from irreversible neurological damage from lead poisoning.
• Hexavalent chromium, dioxin, perchloroethylene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene can all cause cancer.
Safer alternatives can substitute for many uses of toxic chemicals.
• Kaiser Permanente is using safer plastics free of DEHP for IV bags, tubing and catheters.
• By the end of 2007, all of Connecticut’s elementary schools and day care providers will stop using cosmetic pesticides for landscaping and lawn care. These institutions can replace pesticides with organic fertilizers and toxic chemical-free pest control techniques.
Sony and Panasonic have eliminated PBDE flame retardants from television casings while still meeting the highest fire-safety standards, changing to another type of plastic housing that can be treated with safer flame retardants, or to an inherently nonflammable material.
• TEK industries in Vernon and Technical Manufacturing Corporation in Durham offer lead-free electronic component manufacturing services.
• Some cleaners in Connecticut, including Legacy Cleaners in Darien and Colonial Cleaners in Ridgefield, offer “wet cleaning” services, an alternative to dry-cleaning methods that rely on perchloroethylene.
• Building Performance Construction, based in Ridgefield, builds and renovates homes to improve efficiency and health, using building materials that do not emit formaldehyde or other potentially toxic gases.
Reducing exposure can prevent harm.
• The EPA banned household uses of the pesticides chlorpyrifos and diazinon in 2001. The effect of this health-protective action was nearly immediate. After 2001, mothers in New York City had lower levels of these compounds in their bodies and, remarkably, gave birth to heavier and longer babies than before the pesticide ban.
• The phasing out of leaded gasoline and other efforts to reduce lead exposure have reduced the number of children with toxic levels of lead by half over the last decade. Some manufacturers are ahead of the curve in adopting alternatives to toxic chemicals –especially companies wanting to do business in states and countries with tougher regulations for dangerous chemicals, such as the European Union. However, to make the use of alternatives widespread, Connecticut needs to establish its own reforms. Connecticut should ensure the safety of all products on the market through comprehensive chemical policy reform, including:
• Phase out hazardous chemicals. Chemicals that pose serious threats to public health or the environment should be phased out of uses that lead to human exposure, where safer alternatives are available. Connecticut can start by phasing out the use of deca BDE flame retardant in electronic equipment, expanding the elementary school lawn care pesticide ban to include middle and high schools, phasing out DEHP from medical equipment and building materials, and removing any toxic chemical that persists in the environment and accumulates in the food chain from commerce.
• Assist businesses in switching to alternatives. Connecticut should establish a program similar to the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act, including requiring information from manufacturers on the volumes of chemicals used in manufacturing and distributed in consumer products. The program should also include a program similar to the Toxics Use Reduction Institute in Massachusetts that can help local businesses identify and implement safer and cost effective alternatives to toxic chemicals and manufacturing processes.
• Reform chemicals policy. Currently, manufacturers can put chemicals on the market without proving they are safe.
Chemical manufacturers should be required to provide all hazard and health-effects information to the government so agencies can begin to assess the thousands of chemicals currently on the market for which little or inadequate data are available.
Next, pre-market hazard and health-effects testing should be required for all new chemicals before they are introduced into commerce.
Finally, Connecticut agencies must have the authority to ban or restrict the use of a chemical if it poses a risk of environmental contamination or can harm human health, and if safer alternatives are available.
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