The Poisons Around Us
The Center for Public Integrity has recently released two great investigations that show how consumers and workers are being exposed to toxic hazards. "Perils of the New Pesticidies" by M.B. Pell and Jim Morris reveals that the number of reported human health problems connected with pyrethrins and pyrethroids, pesticides used in thousands of consumer products, rose by about 300 percent in the last 10 years. Pell and Morris report that the two pesticides were responsible for more than a quarter of all fatal, “major,” and “moderate” adverse reactions to pesticides in the U.S., up from 15 percent a decade earlier. The EPA said it had not planned to review pyrethrins or pyrethroids until 2010 but would expedite its study after learning of the Center's investigation. The story comes with a terrific search tool that allows readers to type in the names of pesticides and other chemicals they use at home and at work to learn what adverse reactions they have caused across the country. www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/pesticides/
In "Welding's Toxic Legacy," also appearing in the July/August issue of Mother Jones magazine, the Center's Jim Morris describes how the welding-products industry hid from workers the possible dangers of exposure to manganese, a toxic metal. Morris' found evidence that the industry has been paying researchers to claim that there is no link between manganese and neurological damage despite evidence to the contrary. Here Morris puts it in a nutshell:
Court documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity show that the welding companies paid more than $12.5 million to 25 organizations and 33 researchers, virtually all of whom have published papers dismissing connections between welding fumes and workers’ ailments. Most of the money, $11 million, was spent after the litigation achieved critical mass in 2003; attorneys for the welders, meanwhile, spent about half a million.
Throughout the story, Morris does a nice job of personalizing the health risks that welders face. www.publicintegrity.org/projects/entry/358/