THE STORY OF STUFF

by Annie Leonard

  The highest-ranking chemical in my body is Deca-BDE, a flame retardant at the center of a major environmental health battle right now.d Lucky me. Super toxic, Deca-BDE is another probable carcinogen that damages the liver, kidney, and thyroid. My levels are as high as those of workers at those nasty electronics recycling facilities in developing countries, where toxic-laden electronics are destroyed by hand with little or no protective gear.

  There’s no way to know why my Deca levels are so high. One possible reason is that I live in California. California law—influenced by the powerful interests of flame-retardant producers—currently requires flame retardant use far beyond what is necessary for fire safety. This in turn motivates producers in other places to use excessive flame retardants so their products can be sold in California. Every state considering legislation that would ban Deca-BDE needs our support: even with mounting evidence of serious health impacts and the strength of alternative fire prevention approaches (like self extinguishing cigarettes), the industries producing Deca-BDE and other flame retardants are fighting hard to keep using them.e

  My own body burden tests underscore one of the morals of the Story of Stuff: It’s time for comprehensive, prevention-focused reform of how we use chemicals. As vigilant as we can be on the individual level, we’ll never rid our bodies or the environment of toxins as long as we’re still using them in our factories and our Stuff.

  a To learn more about body burden testing, or biomonitoring, see www.commonweal.org/programs/brc/index.html

  b To learn more about perflorinated compounds, see www.pollutioninpeople.org/toxics/pfcs

  c U.S. EPA. 1994. Estimating exposure to dioxin-like compounds, Vol. II: Properties, sources, occurrence and background exposures. Office of Research and Development. Review draft. Washington DC, June. pp. 3–54.

  d To learn more about Deca-BDE, see cleanproduction.org/Flame.Scientific.php and envi ronmentalhealthfund.org/documents/Deca%20Claims-Facts.pdf

  e Environmental Health Fund, “Claims and Facts about Deca-PBE Flame Retardant,” http://environmentalhealthfund.org/documents/Deca%20Claims-Facts.pdf

  Often it’s cheaper for industries to use synthetics, but that’s only because they rarely have to bear all the costs of making, using, cleaning up after, or disposing of these materials—in other words, the costs of paying for their ultimate ecological and health impacts. More externalized costs!

  Only a handful of the tens of thousands of synthetic compounds in use have been screened for health and environmental impacts. Not one has been screened for full synergistic health impacts, which means the impacts on us when we’re exposed to more than one of these compounds at the same time.131 And these days, for those of us living in industrialized countries, that kind of multiple-compound exposure is pretty much constant.

  The terrible truth is that once we make them (or, in the case of the heavy metals, extract and disperse them), it’s very difficult, often impossible, to get rid of these materials. They travel vast distances, carried by wind and water and within animals. Many of them bioaccumulate or biopersist. We breathe tiny particles of them right into our lungs, drink them in with our water, absorb them from our Stuff. Our sunscreen, our furniture, our nonstick frying pans, our foam fire-retardant cushions, and our waterproofed fabrics, to name just a few sources, are all leaching toxins.

  Toxics are everywhere now. Many scientific studies report they are ubiquitous. Scientists seeking an unexposed population tested native people in the Canadian Arctic, far from major industrial sources, and still found very high body burden levels of synthetic chemicals.132 NGOs in the United States and Europe have vacuumed household dust, tested it, and found that it is full of toxic substances.133 No wonder crawling babies and household pets often have such high body burden levels, even though they haven’t been around long enough to come into contact with all the various sources of toxins or to be affected by what the chemical industry apologists call “lifestyle choices.” In a study of umbilical cords, the Environmental Working Group found they contained an average of 287 agricultural and industrial chemicals each.134 And, in a shocking violation of the sanctity of human life, breast milk, which is at the top of the food chain, now has alarmingly high levels of toxic contamination.135

  The fundamental truth about all these dangerous materials is captured in one simple phrase: toxics in, toxics out. As long as we keep putting any of these toxic ingredients into our production processes, toxics will continue coming out: in the products, and via pollution.

  It seems like a lightbulb has gone off in the European Union, where in 2006 they passed the REACH act, which stands for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals. Essentially, REACH means that companies have to prove that chemicals are safe before they get used and spread around,140 as opposed to the “innocent until proven toxic” mentality that continues to reign in the United States. That mentality is illustrated by our ancient and notoriously weak Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which has not been updated since its adoption in 1976. At its adoption, TSCA allowed 62,000 chemicals in use to continue without testing them; it has since allowed another 20,000-some chemicals to enter the market, resulting in tens of thousands in wide use today despite growing evidence of serious health risks.141 To begin to rectify the situation, lawmakers introduced the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act (KSCA) in May 2008. KSCA takes Europe’s REACH approach, placing the burden of proof on chemical companies to demonstrate that chemicals are safe before being introduced into commercial use.142

  INTO THE MOUTHS OF BABES

  Toxics in breast milk? Talk about a controversial issue.

  This is a hard one to talk about for many reasons. It is the last thing that a new mother wants to think about while holding that precious little bundle of joy. It is scary. It feels overwhelming. It may discourage mothers from breastfeeding, which is still, by far, the best food for babies.

  But we’ve got to talk about it. Silence only serves the polluters who, I am sure, would be grateful if no one ever brought up the issue of toxics showing up in human breast milk. So let’s talk about it. Let’s talk about it often, and loudly.

  As I’ve said, every person alive today carries in his or her body a diverse range of toxic chemicals, thanks mostly to modern industrial processes and products. Pregnant and nursing women, and developing fetuses and newborn children—the littlest, most vulnerable members of society, with their rapidly growing brains and bodies—are no exception.

  There have been a number of studies by medical professionals, government health agencies, environmental health groups, and others to track pollutants in breast milk. The Environmental Workgroup Group (EWG), for example, tested for toxic flame retardants in milk from twenty first-time mothers across the United States.136 These flame retardants are linked to neurological problems, including reduced learning, attention, and memory. EWG’s results showed some of the highest levels of flame retardants in breast milk ever found globally, with average levels seventy-five times higher than averages found in Europe, where some of these flame retardants have been banned.137

  In the face of all the anguish and fear that this news brings with it, there are some important things to remember:

  The problem is not the mother, but the broader industrial system. We wouldn’t have toxics in our breast milk if we hadn’t developed an industrial model that permeates our communities with toxins, overseen by a regulatory model that really has no clue what’s going on with these chemicals.

  Breast is still best. Breast-feeding provides nutrients, minerals, antibodies, and powerful emotional bonding for new babies. It helps mothers recover from pregnancy, and mothers who breast-feed have lower rates of ovarian and breast cancer later in life. (Breastfed daughters may also have lower rates of breast cancer.138) Even in light of the scary news about toxics, environmental health and medical experts continue to recommend breastfeeding.

  The problem is not irreversible. Long-term testing of breast milk has shown that once toxic c
hemicals are removed from use, their levels in breast milk decline. The data comparing U.S. levels to those in Europe, where some flame retardants have been banned since 2004, proves there’s lower contamination in places where the use of chemicals has been effectively restricted.139

  “When babies come into this world pre-polluted with hundreds of dangerous industrial chemicals already in their blood, it’s clear that the regulatory system is broken,” says Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group. “The Kid-Safe Chemicals Act will change a lax, outdated system that presumes chemicals are safe into one that requires makers of toxic chemicals to prove their safety before they’re allowed on the market. This bill is a long-overdue move to put public health ahead of chemical industry profits.”143 The chemical industry is rallying its troops of public relations specialists and lobbyists to defeat KSCA, so to get on board and help turn this bill into law, contact the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Campaign, working in Washington, D.C., and in communities across the country to pass laws to reform industry practices with regard to chemicals. Visit www.saferchemicals.org and saferstates.org to learn more.

  Rather than focus on reducing any one population’s (like children’s) exposure to hazardous chemicals, the simplest solution is to phase out toxics altogether and replace them with safe materials. This approach is far more effective, since the level of hazard in a chemical is controllable, while exposure is not, especially with chemicals that persist, disperse, and build up throughout ecosystems. This is where green chemistry comes in. Pioneering green chemists are designing new materials from the molecular level up to satisfy all our requirements (for things to be sticky, strong, colorful, flame-resistant, etc.) while also being fully compatible with ecological and human health. To learn more about green chemistry, visit Clean Production Action at www.cleanproduction.org.

  The Front Lines

  Up to now I’ve mostly been talking about how consumers like me are exposed to toxins through Stuff in stores and in daily life. But consumers are actually the third and last group of people to be affected by the toxins used in production processes. First come the workers actually making and assembling our Stuff.

  The lyrics to one of my favorite songs, More Than a Paycheck, by the a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, go like this: “We bring more than a paycheck to our loved ones and families... I bring home asbestosis, silicosis, brown lung, black lung disease, and radiation that hits the children before they’ve really been conceived.”144 It’s true. Workers are on the front line, routinely exposed to toxic chemicals by touching them, inhaling them, and sometimes carrying them home on their clothing to share with their families. They bear the heaviest, unfiltered brunt of exposure to toxic inputs and dangerous processes and products. As Dr. Peter Orris, chief of environmental and occupational medicine at the University of Illinois Medical Center, laments, “These diseases and deaths are completely preventable. Civilized society should not tolerate this unnecessary loss of life either on the job or in our communities.”145

  The National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) is the government entity focused on safety and health in the workplace. NIOSH believes that millions of workers in the United States are routinely exposed to substances found to be carcinogenic in animal studies and that millions more may be exposed to yet-undetermined carcinogens, since more than 98 percent—nearly all—of the substances used in our factories today have not yet been tested for carcinogenicity.146 NIOSH estimates that work exposure to carcinogens causes about twenty thousand cancer deaths and forty thousand new cases of cancer each year.147 And cancer is only one of a number of diseases linked to exposure of toxic substances at work; there’s also cardiovascular disease, reproductive and neurological disorders, skin problems, respiratory diseases including asthma, and more. Maybe Sweet Honey should rewrite their song: “I bring home more than a paycheck to my loved ones and family, but I can’t tell you what else I bring home since no one has bothered to study these chemicals that I inhale and handle all day at work.”

  But at least in the United States today there’s growing awareness of the risks that workers face and increased safety regulations in the workplace. Back when environmental health activists first started raising concerns about industrial chemicals, many companies brushed aside concerns and focused their employees’ attention on how environmentalists threatened to close factories and risk jobs. Corporate managers often framed the issues as “jobs versus environment.” For a while this served to divide the two groups—representatives of labor versus environmental defenders. Ultimately it became clear that a healthy environment and good jobs that protect workers’ health are integrally connected and mutually dependent.

  In large part this shift in understanding came about through the work of one of my heroes, the late great Tony Mazzochi, a labor leader with the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, who is frequently referred to as the Rachel Carson of the labor movement. Throughout the 1960s Mazzochi informed workers about toxic threats, exposed information about workplace dangers to the public and policymakers, and, very important, built alliances between labor and environmentalists, defeating the attempts to keep these two powerful constituencies isolated. Today’s movement for green jobs—dignified employment that is good for workers and for the planet—owes a debt to Mazzochi’s tireless efforts.

  We still have a ways to go in the United States before our factories are entirely green and toxics free, but meanwhile one of the tragic side effects of our cleaning things up at home has been exporting the nastiest production processes to poor countries around the world. I’ve seen many a dismal factory on nearly every continent, but my most gut-wrenching experience was in Gujarat, India, a region the Indian government calls the “golden corridor” because of the influx of international investment dollars. In my circles it’s known as the “cancer corridor,” because it’s full of life-threatening chemical production plants, some of which were relocated from Western countries with stricter standards.

  In 1995 my friends and I took the train from vibrant Delhi to the hot, dry, and dusty town of Ankleshwar, which is just one of about two hundred “industrial estates” in the Gujarat region. There, hundreds of factories crowded the area as far as the eye could see, sharing the same roads, power plants, and, as an afterthought, the same inadequate waste disposal sites. The air was thick with a stinky toxic stew from the plastics, petrochemicals, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals being manufactured. And in every free space between the factories, workers had built makeshift homes out of scraps of metal and wood. I tried not to think the about how these homes would fare during the annual monsoons.

  Running right alongside the shacks and the roads were small ditches filled with foul-smelling reddish-brown liquid waste. From the look and smell of it alone we could tell this gunk was toxic—and my colleagues’ tests would reveal that the wastewater contained mercury, lead, and many other chemicals that cause reproductive disorders and liver, brain, and kidney damage. Life went on around these ditches with no precautions— I watched barefoot children leap back and forth over them as they played, and women in bright saris squatted and cooked nearby. I followed the ditches to where they ended in a gigantic holding pond. There the young man who managed the pond’s pump emerged from a utility shed to greet us, proud to explain his work to a group of curious foreigners.

  What we learned was that he actually lived with the pump. Night and day without a break, he monitored the level of liquid in the holding pond. When it neared capacity, his job was to turn on the pump. This drained some of the waste liquid out of the pond, from where it was transported by more open-air ditches to a local river, then to the sacred Narmada River, and eventually to the Gulf of Cambay (now known as the Gulf of Khambhat) where the local fishermen fished. Everything—the pump operator’s T-shirt, his thin cotton sleeping mat, and the walls of the tiny five-foot by six-foot space in which he coexisted with the deafening pump machinery—was splattered with the gunk. A dark flood mark lined
the walls: the place had been flooded knee-deep with the waste at least once.

  Then, in front of my very eyes, he turned on the pump and, finding it wasn’t running smoothly, he casually reached his bare arm up into the hose and pulled out a fistful of twigs and other debris drenched in the toxic liquid. The pump sputtered and started working. As he smiled, pleased with his successful repair, my friends and I were hit by the sickening realization that the problem went way beyond toxic waste and pollution: this was also clearly a human rights violation, a health threat, a tragedy of poverty, and an outrageous injustice. It was a scene no consumer ever imagines when he or she takes a product off the shelf in a Wal-Mart or Target thousands of miles away.

  Fence-line Communities

  In addition to the people who buy Stuff (consumers) and those who make Stuff (workers), there is one more group of people deeply affected by production processes: the people who live, work, and play near factories. These communities, whose children grow up in the shadows of giant factory smokestacks, are often called host communities or fence-line communities. They are virtually never consulted or informed when faraway CEOs make decisions about how and where dirty facilities will be operated. Rampant rates of cancers, birth defects, respiratory diseases like asthma, lowered attention and IQ, and radically shortened life spans plague these communities, no matter where in the world they are. And there’s something else these communities have in common: they are usually poor, and the people in them are usually not white skinned.

  This phenomenon is known as environmental racism—that is, the placement of the most toxic facilities in communities of color, zoning and other practices or policies that result in disproportionate burdens being placed on communities of color, and the exclusion of people from these communities from environmental planning and decision making. In the 1980s, the environmental justice (EJ) movement emerged in the United States in response to these fundamentally unfair practices and offered an alternative vision—one of environmental health, economic equity, and rights and justice for all people.148