Month: December 2016

Drinking Water –Topped the List of Calls for Assistance

Post author By Lois Gibbs
Post date December 20, 2016

Fortunately CHEJ was able to help community after community with questions and concerns about their water. Moms, dads and individuals panicked ask for help – what can we do to protect our children – ourselves?
CHEJ scientists were there to answer questions about toxicity, safe levels and health impacts from exposure. We were there to help because you were there — providing the resources through contributions large and small. Thank you for making sure we were able to respond to the many people who needed advice from a trusted person.
Here’s a few of their introductory sentences.
“There is dioxin in our drinking water.” Houston, Texas
“There’s a licorice smell when I turn on the tap water.” Charleston, West Virginia
“We have lead in the nurse’s station faucet at our elementary school.” Ithaca, New York
“EPA said don’t drink the water it has a toxic chemical in it.” Flint, Michigan
“We need protection from coal ash in our drinking water.” Uniontown, Alabama
“The water in our childcare center has flame retardant chemicals.” Portsmouth, NH
“State says don’t drink, bath or use the water at all – it contains a solvent that’s dangerous.” Corpus Christi, Texas
“The water stinks but we’re told it is fine to drink. Where can I test my water?” Portland, Oregon
Unfortunately, the issue around safe drinking water are not going away any day soon. In fact some believe the trend toward unsafe water is more likely to continue. Why? Not because there is more pollution that will contaminated the water, although there might likely be more. It’s because people are now demanding that schools, day care facilities and water suppliers provide a yearly test that includes lead, copper and other contaminates. Parents and teachers are asking that all child related facilities test yearly and share the results of the water samples with parents, staff and school boards immediately.
This testing is not routine and when it is done the results are rarely shared with the public. Therefore, places where children have been exposed for years, will surface and concerned people will be looking for trusted advice.
Thanks to your continued support CHEJ will be there to pick up the phone and provide the assistance needed. Please join us again this year so we can be there for people in crisis and provide honest answers to their questions.

Tags drinking water, lead water, polluted water, School water, toxic water, Water Testing, water testing results

Homepage

Is Your Drinking Water Safe?

Post author By Lois Gibbs
Post date December 20, 2016

Corpus Christi, Texas, residents warned to avoid tap water.
Residents of Corpus Christi, Texas were told to not to drink or bathe in the tap water because of a chemical contamination. About 300,000 people in Corpus Christi on the Gulf of Mexico coast were impacted by this crisis. Residents were told that nothing including boiling, filtering, adding chlorine or other disinfectants, or letting the water stand will not make the water safe.
The contaminants have not yet been named, but are petroleum-based from an asphalt plant. The contamination was the result of a faulty valve in the city’s industrial area, which caused a back-flow leaking toxic contaminates into the drinking water supply.
In cities with industrial areas it is important to ask if your city has safeguards in place to prevent this type of accident from happening to your public water supply. Although the problem was unidentified and is being corrected there were 300,000 people who are potential victims of toxic exposures that can cause all types of medical problems including cancers, reproductive, nervous system and more.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Tags chemicals water, contaminated water, drinking water, water crisis, water protection

Backyard Talk

Low Doses Matter

Post author By Stephen Lester
Post date December 6, 2016

A new video is available that addresses the cumulative impact of exposure to low level mixtures of toxic chemicals on the developing brain. Dr Bruce Lanphear and colleagues from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia have produced an excellent 7 minute video that is sure to educate and provoke discussion.
This remarkable video, Little Things Matter, explains in easy-to-understand language why exposures to small amounts of toxic chemicals matter, how widespread exposure to brain-damaging toxins, such as lead and mercury, PCBs and flame-retardants, can have severe impacts on the developing brain of children. “There is strong evidence that learning disabilities and lower IQ scores can be attributed to extremely low levels of exposure to toxic metals like lead and mercury, persistent toxins such as polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), and other toxins including organophosphate (OP) pesticides and compounds used as flame-retardants. These toxins are common in our daily environments,” says Lanphear.
Lanphear who narrates the video states that “We’ve been studying the impact of toxins on children for the past 30 years and reached the inescapable conclusion: little things matter.” He goes on to say that exposure to toxic chemicals can have a life-long impact on children and that extremely low levels of toxins can impact brain development.
The video illustrates how vulnerable children are to exposures to toxic chemicals. It points out that a 5 point decrease in average IQ among U.S. children would result in an additional 3.4 million children who are considered intellectually disabled or mentally retarded. There is a corresponding decrease the number of children who are considered to be intellectually gifted.
Lanphear and his colleagues offer advice on what steps people can take to reduce their exposures to toxic chemicals including eating fresh or frozen food, avoiding pesticide use in your home and checking for lead hazards. He also suggests contacting your federal representatives and urging them to support legislation that reverses the burden of proof to require companies to prove that a chemical is not toxic before it enters the market, as is the case in the European Union. Lanphear goes to say that the ultimate solution is to reverse how we regulate chemicals. He could not be more right. We can no longer rely on the notion that only exposure to chemicals at high doses matter. This video makes it clear that small doses do matter. Be sure to check out this new video.

Tags chemicals, children's health, environmental health, Environmental Justice, health, learning disabilities, toxic, toxic chemicals, Toxic Exposure

News Archive

Perfluorinated Compounds (PFCs) – The New Lead

Post author By chejadmin
Post date December 1, 2016

by Stephen Lester
Will our water ever be safe? A new group of chemicals is showing up in drinking water across the country; in Portsmouth, NH, Hoosick Falls, NY, Scottsdale, AZ, Colorado Springs, CO, Decatur, AL, Bucks County, PA and Cape Cod, MA to name a few places. These chemicals are called perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs.
PFCs are common in many consumer products including teflon pans, fabric protectors, pizza boxes and ski wax, and are used to make carpets, clothing, fabrics for furniture. They first generated headlines in the 1990s when a DuPont plant that made teflon and related products was responsible for contaminating the drinking water of 70,000 people in Parkersburg, WV. Exposure to PFCs is linked to developmental delays in children, decreased fertility, increased cholesterol, changes in the immune system, and cancer (prostate, kidney and testicular).
One recent study1 from Harvard University School of Public Health estimates millions of Americans may be drinking water contaminated with PFCs, including perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).
Drinking water contamination by PFOA and PFOS stems from two main sources: factories that formerly manufactured or used these chemicals; and locations, including military bases, where they were used in firefighting foams. According to the EPA, both PFOA and PFOS are found at very low levels in the blood of the general population across the U.S.
Earlier this year, EPA updated its Health Advisory2 for PFOA and PFOS to 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for both compounds combined. However the researchers at Harvard believe this value is not adequately protective of the public3 and that 1 ppt is a more appropriate standard.4
CHEJ has prepared fact sheets on the toxicity of these chemicals5 and how to interpret blood levels.6 Both were prepared as part of our work with the local residents in Portsmouth, NH. Please visit our website at www.chej.org to contact us if you have questions about PFCs including how to interpret test results.