Opening up the chemical secrets

We can't live in a risk-free society, but we can live in an honest society," says Everett Hoffpauer, a former chemical company employee afflicted with a work-related bone disorder, from Bill Moyers' Trade Secrets, broadcast on PBS on March 26, 2001. Moyers' piece is unusual in its honesty. It is journalism unafraid to have a point of view, and that point of view is frankly critical of the past and present chemical industry. In his special, Moyers takes a look into what certain chemical companies knew about hazardous chemical exposure to employees who would later become ill and sue for damages. Moyers also looks at internal documents outlining more recent well-organized and well-financed chemical industry political action. The chemical industry is crying foul, and has set up a Web site to counter, http://www.abouttradesecrets.org, which points to the voluntary efforts made by the industry to regulate itself and investigate its products. So how much damage can a few memos and letters do? The documents are astounding. You can read them at Trade Secrets' own Web site, http://www.pbs.org/tradesecrets. To avoid a Ralph Nader-like investigation into their practices, various chemical corporations agreed as late as 1995 that their information on health risks would be shared among themselves only, while employees were assured that they had nothing to worry about. One document in particular, dated 1966, notes that the industry wants to "avoid exposes like Silent Spring and Unsafe at any Speed," with regard to employee exposure to vinyl chloride. Moyers also found a document dated 1959 from B.F. Goodrich, which notes that "rather appreciable injury" occurs "when [vinyl chloride is] inhaled seven hours a day, five days a week for an extended period." Workers attending the vinyl vats on a daily basis received comparable exposure, before four deaths in Louisville, Ky. helped hasten OSHA regulation of occupational vinyl chloride exposure in 1974. The chemical industry has been quick to point out that these are matters of historical interest, and don't reflect current industry modus operandi. And producers have volunteered to study and regulate themselves, point out industry reps. But Moyers uses more recent history on the chemical industry, again with documents procured from lawsuits, to question the wisdom of restrained government in a complex society. Also, chemical industry government relations committee circulated a memo in 1981 stating that "the Reagan administration appears to have produced changes that bode well for our industry." Soon thereafter, President Reagan "directed the EPA to delay proposing or finalizing regulations until it could be determined that they were cost-effective and necessary." The industry's political action committee had contributed $6 million to the 1980 Reagan election campaign, according to Moyers. Is the past prologue? California passed Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act or "Right to Know" bill, which required that a citizen must be warned if they are exposed to a health hazard. It passed on June 4, 1986. But Moyers points out that no state Right to Know legislation has passed since that year. When only 43 percent of the 15,000-or so chemicals that are produced in large quantities have been tested for toxicity to humans, according to Dr. Philip Landrigan of the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, should cost-effectiveness alone dictate protective regulation? The industry lists the regulations to which it is now subjected, but does not address on its Web site the chemicals coming to market that have little or no available data on their safety to humans. There is no evidence available to remove or block manufacture, leaving a large hole in the safety net. Moyers dared to suggest that the climbing rates of breast, brain and certain other cancers -- along with the rising incidence of learning disabilities -- may somehow be related to some of the substances we allow into our environment. In response, a chemical industry representative stated that "It would be a disaster to take chemicals off the market. Peru took chlorination out of its water, and was struck with a deadly cholera epidemic." What the industry rep did not add was that as recently as 1992, the policy of his PAC was to develop "voluntary health, safety and environmental information that will potentially avert restrictive regulatory actions and legislative initiatives," according to a Chemical Manufacturers' Association document. Moyers deserves praise for renewing dialogue on American health and civic responsibility. Our children's future and safety depends on deeply informed involvement.

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