October 6, 2012
WHO knew that carcinogens
had their own lobby in Washington?
Don’t believe me? Just
consider formaldehyde, which is found in everything from nail polish to kitchen
countertops, fabric softeners to carpets. Largely because of its use in
building materials, we breathe formaldehyde fumes when we’re inside our homes.
Just one other fact you
should know: According to government scientists, it causes cancer.
The chemical industry is
working frantically to suppress that scientific consensus — because it fears “public confusion.” Big Chem apparently worries that you might be confused if you
learned that formaldehyde caused cancer of the nose and throat, and perhaps
leukemia as well.
The industry’s strategy is
to lobby Congress to cut off money for the Report on Carcinogens, a 500-page
consensus document published every two years by the National Institutes of
Health, containing the best information about what agents cause cancer. If that
sounds like shooting the messenger, well, it is.
“The way the free market is
supposed to work is that you have information,” said Lynn Goldman, dean of the school of public
health at George Washington University. “They’re trying to squelch that
information.”
The larger issue is
whether the federal government should be a watchdog for public health, or a lap
dog for industry. When Mitt Romney denounces President Obama for excessive
regulation, these are the kinds of issues at stake.
“Formaldehyde is known to
be a human carcinogen,” declared the most recent
Report on Carcinogens, published in 2011. Previous editions had listed it only as a
suspected carcinogen, but the newer report, citing many studies of human and
animal exposure to formaldehyde, made the case that it was time to stop
equivocating.
The chemical industry was
outraged, because it sells lots of formaldehyde that ends up in people’s
homes, often without their knowledge.
“Nearly all homes had
formaldehyde concentrations that exceeded guidelines for cancer and chronic
irritation,” according to a 2009 survey by the California Energy Commission.
The Report on Carcinogens
also offended the chemical industry by listing styrene for the first time as
“reasonably anticipated to be a carcinogen.” Styrene, which goes into everything from boats to shower stalls, is
mostly a risk to those who work in factories where it is used, so it’s less of
an issue for the general public.
The chemical industry is
represented in Washington by the American Chemistry Council, which is the lobbying front for
chemical giants like Exxon Mobil, Dow, BASF and DuPont. Those companies should
understand that they risk their reputations when they toy with human lives.
The American Chemistry
Council first got its pals in Congress to order a $1 million follow-up study on
formaldehyde and styrene. Then it demanded, through a provision drafted by Representative Denny Rehberg, a Montana Republican, that no
money be spent on another Report on Carcinogens until the follow-up was
completed — meaning a four-year delay until the next report. Stay tuned for an
industry effort to slip some such provision into the next budget legislation.
Let’s be clear. There is
uncertainty about toxic chemicals, and it is perfectly legitimate to criticize
the Report on Carcinogens. But this effort to defund the report is an insult to
science and democracy alike.
Barbara K. Rimer, the
chairwoman of the President’s
Cancer Panel, told
me that there might be ways to improve the Report on Carcinogens but that it
would be wrong to cut off money for it. “Without this program, there would be a
gap in the protection of the public,” she said.
Last month, 76 scientists
wrote a joint letter to Congress noting that the World Health Organization also listed
formaldehyde as a known carcinogen, and styrene as a possible carcinogen. They
defended the Report on Carcinogens as “consistent with international scientific
consensus.”
“The American Chemistry
Council is working to delay and ultimately destroy” the Report on Carcinogens,
the scientists wrote.
The chemical council
declined to speak to me on the record. It has a long record of obfuscation,
borrowing the same strategies that the tobacco industry used to delay
regulation of cigarettes.
“It’s the same playbook,”
noted Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist of the
Natural Resources Defense Council.
The American Chemistry
Council is also trying to undermine scientific reviews by the Environmental Protection Agency. You can say this for our
political system: Even carcinogens have an advocate in Washington!
The basic strategy is an
old one. As David Michaels notes in his book “Doubt Is Their Product,” the
first evidence that asbestos causes cancer emerged in the 1930s. But three
decades later, industry executives were still railing about “ill-informed and
exaggerated” press reports, still covering up staggering cancer rates, and
still denouncing regulation of asbestos as “premature.” Huge numbers of
Americans today are dying as a result.
Do we really want to go
through that again?
 |
| Nicholas D. Kristof |
Source:
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