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US Lags Behind Europe in Regulating Toxicity of Everyday Products.
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Mark Schapiro, author of Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and Whats at Stake for American Power.
– Schapiro writes, The European-led revolution in chemical regulation requires that thousands of chemicals finally be assessed for their potentially toxic effects on human beings and signals the end of American industrys ability to withhold critical data from the public.

Mark Schapiro, Editorial Director of the Center for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco and author of Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and Whats at Stake for American Power.

Developing a green economy has been one of President Obamas central promises while on the campaign trail and since taking office. Well, my next guest believes that tightening environmental and consumer safety regulations on the American chemical and manufacturing industry is not only necessary for the health of the environment, but is good for the economy.

Do you know whats in the mascara you wear or the toys your kids play with? Has the American chemical industry blocked regulation of products that may be linked to cancer, infertility, neurological and hormonal disorders? Do these lax environmental standards mean US companies are losing out on one of the worlds most affluent markets: Europe?

Europes stringent regulations require companies seeking access to their lucrative markets to eliminate these toxic substances and manufacture safer and greener electronics, automobiles, toys and cosmetics.

Theres been massive lobbying by the American chemical industry to try to prevent the Europeans from moving forward. They did move forward, and we, finally, in America, ten years later, have actually banned—about six months ago, the US Congress finally banned phthalates in the United States in certain childrens toys, number one, ten years after the European Union did, which means the European companies got a big advance on finding alternatives, and two, theyre still selling out the inventory, so theyre permitted to sell the inventory in America until it runs out.
We get the toxic toys. We get toxic electronics. We get the toxic material that other countries around the world are protected from. And that is what I found most, you know, alarming in writing the book, because to find out that the United States has become the dumping ground—we used to be the country that banned a product and dumped it overseas somewhere in the developing world somewhere. And now, we, after, you know, a decade of retreat from environmental ideas, are the country that is the dumped-upon country.

Duration : 0:10:21

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