Small Talk

Our top priority in Washington is passing a bill to phase out the use of toxic flame retardants called PBDEs that are rapidly building up in breast milk, our bodies, and the environment. For the past two years, the Washington legislature has failed to pass the bill despite bipartisan support, the endorsement of the leading public-health associations in the state, and the availability of safer substitutes. We will be back again during the 2007 legislative session and are very optimistic that Washington state will be the first state in the nation to phase out all forms of PBDEs. Polluting industries have spent a lot of money to defeat the bill, and we need everybody to join together to fight back.

We provide information on our site about the testing process and how you can set something up with a physician.

In my opinion, the most toxic substances we should be concerned about are a class of chemicals called persistent bioaccumulative toxics, or PBTs. These are chemicals like mercury, dioxin, and PBDEs. What each of these chemicals has in common is that they stick around for a long time in the environment (examples include PCBs and DDT, two long-banned chemicals that still cause health and environmental problems today because they take so long to break down); they accumulate in the food chain (mercury in fish is a prime example); and they are toxic to our health and the environment. Washington Toxics Coalition and many organizations across the globe are working to phase out this entire class of chemicals and replace them with safer substitutes.

We don't know exactly what the top three sources of pollution in people are at this point. These types of studies are still relatively new and scientists are still sorting out exactly how we are exposed to various chemicals showing up in our bodies. However, we do know quite a bit about some of the sources.

There is growing support from the medical community for the work that we do. The Washington State Nurses Association is one of the leading advocates for phasing out PBDEs and other toxic chemicals. Nearly every major public-health association in Washington supported phasing out PBDEs. Nationally, the American Nurses Association has become very involved in these issues. Globally, the health-care industry has worked hard to green their industry, led by the incredible work of Health Care Without Harm. The public-health community increasingly recognizes the dangers caused by toxic chemicals on our health and is starting to speak out in support of policy change.

As far as we know, the vast majority of Washington schools still use toxic pesticides. That's the bad news. The good news is that a growing number of school districts in Washington and across the U.S. are passing good policies and moving away from pesticides. In Washington, the Vancouver and Bainbridge Island school districts have been leaders. Nationally, Beyond Pesticides has done some outstanding work on pesticides in schools and has lots of good information on their website.

Thank you for your good work on this issue. You have put your finger on one of the biggest challenges facing us in our work -- getting people to recognize a problem that they can't see. I think there are a number of things to do, and perhaps you have tried some of these already.