California has moved closer to the establishment of the country's only statewide biomonitoring program, aimed at tracking chemicals such as plastics and flame retardants increasingly found in human bodies.

Date:   8/23/2005 1:55:34 AM ( 19 y ago)

California Biomonitoring Bill Advances
by Douglas Fischer
Oakland Tribune, July 2005
From: Our Toxic Times, August 2005


The California Assembly Health Committee approved Senate Bill 600 by Sens. Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, agreeing with its aim to sample California's population for a variety of compounds and track trends in chemical exposures.

The bill heads next to the full Assembly, the first time in five tries such a program has emerged from committee.

Also, the committee said cosmetics manufacturers would have to submit to the state a list of any product ingredients known to cause cancer or reproductive harm (SB 484).

Supporters called both measures an important step forward for Californians seeking to know what is in their bodies and their products.

Opponents--mostly industry but also including a coaliton of breast cancer organizations--said the bills force the disclosure of information with no context or understanding. That serves only to needlessly scare people, they said. "There is a right to know, but there is also a right to understand," testified Bob Krieger, a toxicologist with the University of California, Riverside.

Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council and an adjunct professor at University of California, San Franscisco, said a state biomonitoring program would serve as a "guiding light" for policy makers trying to assess the efficacy of public health decisions.

"When scientists evaluate health risks, they need three pieces of information," said Solomon, one of three people invited to testify in favor of the bill. "They need information about hazard,information about dose, and information about exposure. This bill will enhance the information available on exposure."

The other two testifying Tuesday in support of SB 600 were Jermiah Holland and Michele Hammond, parents of the Berkeley family the Oakland Tribune tested for a suite of environmental contaminants.

The paper's investigation included metals, plasticizers and the chemical precursors of Teflon and Scotchguard. It found measurable amounts in all family members, with their two children--particularly their 2-year old son, Rowan--surprisingly high in flame retardants.

Europe has moved to ban such compounds as phthalates, which are found in many everyday products in miniscule amounts and known to be carcinogenic or reproductive toxins, and many major manufacturers have started to reformulate their products.

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TAKE ACTION:

E-MAIL YOUR CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLYMAN AND ASK THEM TO VOTE "YES" ON THE ASSEMBLY VERSIONS OF SENATE BILL 600(BIOMONITORING) and SENATE BILL 484(COSMETICS)!

Contact Information:

Don't know your State Assemblyman's Name or Information? click here:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/defaulttext.asp

and click on "Find My District". A window with a map on it will open; type in your address. A window will open showing the name and contact information for both your State Assemblyman and State Senator. Click on the highlighted name of your representative to go directly to their website, where you can contact them via message or e-mail.

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Additional ACTION: Tell California Assembly to Vote for Clean Air in the Central Valley!

After over two years of hard work by a dedicated coalition of environmental justice, faith-based, and environmental health organizations including Union of Concerned Scientists, SB 999 (Machado) is very close to finally becoming law! This critical clean air bill makes the notoriously polluter-friendly San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District more accountable to the public by adding more representatives from local governments in the urban centers of the region, as well as public appointments with expertise in public health and air pollution science. The State Assembly is scheduled to take a final vote on the bill any day now. Please contact your Assembly Member and ask for a YES vote on SB 999--our friends, neighbors and family members in the Valley are counting on us.

For more information and to Take Action, go to: http://ucsaction.org/campaign/8_22_05CA_clean_air/step1.tcl

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"Our Toxic Times" is published monthly by Chemical Injury Information Network (CIIN), a nonprofit support and advocacy organization dealing with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS). It is run by the chemically injured for the benefit of the chemically injured, and focuses primarily on education, credible research into MCS, and the empowerment of the chemically injured. http://www.ciin.org

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"Toxins in Newborns" http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=309&i=98
Toxins in Cosmetics: http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=309&i=2
Toxins in Perfume: http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=309&i=65
Household "Products Cause Bad Air" http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=309&i=1
"Pesticides: Body Burden" http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=309&i=61






 

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