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Pose your questions to Dr. Greene and the DrGreene.com Community on
Ask, Answer, Learn.
It's been an historic day! The Safe Chemicals Act was introduced in the Senate, along with a discussion version for the House. I'm very excited. Now it's time to help the bill pass, for the sake of our kids. Two simple steps?
1) Sign the petition. Yesterday my friend Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group unrolled a scroll in Senator Frank Lautenberg's office. There were five columns of typed names, single-spaced, on a scroll that stretched out for 122 feet. It's not too late to add your name to the list.
2) Give your kids a voice. I'm working with Seventh Generation on the Million Baby Crawl. It's easy. Add to the list children you want protected, by name or nickname. Seventh Generation and I are part of the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families coalition.
Browse our real-time reports of today's hottest baby names.
Comments
This is wonderful!
This is wonderful!
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Shelby Rodriguez
Sad
It is sad that there even needs to be legislation. One would think that chemicals would be tested for safety before they are put on the shelves. I guess things we think are common sense really aren't.
Modern Science, Modern Policy
Making industrial chemicals safer is something we can all get behind. However, if we want safer chemicals and a safer environment then we must use nonanimal methods of testing.
From what I've read many toxicity tests are based on experiments in animals and use methods that were developed as long ago as the 1930’s; they and are slow, inaccurate, open to uncertainty and manipulation, and do not adequately protect human health. These tests take anywhere from months to years, and tens of thousands to millions of dollars to perform. More importantly, the current testing paradigm has a poor record in predicting effects in humans and an even poorer record in leading to actual regulation of dangerous chemicals.
The blueprint for the development and implementation of nonanimal testing is the National Academy of Sciences report, "Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy in 2007." This report calls for a shift away from the use of animals in toxicity testing. The report also concludes that human cell- and computer-based approaches are the best way to protect human health because they allow us to understand more quickly and accurately the varied effects that chemicals can have on different groups of people. They are also more affordable and more humane.
These methods are ideal for assessing the real world scenarios such as mixtures of chemicals, which have proven problematic using animal-based test methods. And, they're the only way we can assess all chemicals on the market.