Meet the men who experimented on themseleves with toxic chemicals

Authors of Slow Death by Rubber Duck, Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie, will be at NSW Parliament House on Friday to talk of their experiences combating toxic chemicals in Canada and the implications for Australians.

“Australians have higher levels of persistent chemical pollutants in their bodies compared to their EU counterparts, but despite the findings, regulators are playing down the problem and failing to protect Australians from further exposures,” warned Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith of the National Toxics Network (NTN) today.

“Limited monitoring by government agencies has revealed Australians have twice the level of dangerous brominated flame retardants in their blood and breast milk compared to their European counterparts. The most disturbing finding is that children under four have the highest concentrations of all,” said Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith.

“High levels of brominated flame retardants in breast milk may partly explain high levels in children under four, because they inherit the chemical load during breastfeeding. Flame-retardants are found everywhere in products from electronics to carpets and foam furnishings and they are linked with cancer and reproductive damage”.

“Australians also have more PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate) in their blood, second only to USA levels. Use of PFOS in Australia is limited to fire fighting, but PFOS in everyday products like textiles and its variant, PFOA, used in ‘non-stick’ cookware, are imported into the Australia many products. PFOA is subject to a ‘voluntary’ ban in Australia but no agency is systemically monitoring imported products,” says Lloyd-Smith.

“Despite action by USA and EU regulators to ban dangerous phthalate plasticisers, such as DEHP used in soft plastics, Australian regulators have only recently introduced an interim ban prohibiting supply of certain plastic products known to be dangerous to children ‘that are made of or contain more than 1% DEHP’. Once again, this is an inadequate response and no-one is checking imported products,” said Lloyd-Smith

“Australian regulators are also downplaying the risks of Bisphenol A (BPA) found in products such as baby bottles and food containers. BPA is now found in the bodies of virtually all people living in developed countries at levels that can cause cancer, genital abnormalities, diabetes and behavioral disorders in laboratory animals.

Canadian, US and EU authorities have moved to ban BPA, but Australian regulators claim ‘there’s no problem’”.

“Australians deserve the same level of protection from toxic chemicals known to cause harm as their overseas counterparts. The government must act now to overhaul its chemical regulatory legislation and agencies to ensure quick action is taken to reduce the escalating chemical load in our bodies,” concluded Dr Lloyd-Smith.

Share this: