Dr. Molly Gray, a participant in the Earliest Exposures biomonitoring project, testified before Congress about her experience of being biomonitored. Her testimony, and those of other biomonitoring participants, was influential in a bill being proposed to reform national toxics chemical law.
“Something is wrong when I, as an educated consumer, am unable to protect my baby from toxic chemicals. I and all other parents should be able to walk into stores and buy what we need without winding up with products that put our families’ health at risk.”
Dr. Molly Gray made this statement at the February 4th Congressional hearing sponsored by Sen. Lautenberg who, following the testimonies of panelists, announced his intention to introduce a bill reforming the nation’s toxic chemical law, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Molly, a first time mother, had been biomonitored during her second trimester along with eight other new moms from California, Oregon, and Washington for the presence of toxic chemicals. The Earliest Exposures biomonitoring project, coordinated by the Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Center, Washington State Toxics Coalition, and the Toxics Free Legacy Coalition, conducted the testing.
Like all the moms in the project, Molly was careful during her pregnancy to avoid exposures to chemicals that have the potential to cause harm to her developing fetus. And like all the moms in the project, Molly was surprised to find that her body contained bisphenol A, the hormone disrupting chemical used to make polycarbonate plastic and the lining for food cans; “Teflon chemicals,” or perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), chemicals used to create stain-protection products and non-stick cookware; and phthalates, the plasticizers and fragrance carriers found in consumer products from shower curtains to shampoo.
Molly’s words of concern as a participant in the Earliest Exposures biomonitoring project places a very personal story alongside the Center for Disease Control’s statistics that indicate levels of toxic chemicals in women of childbearing age in the US population. Her story as an individual who has been biomonitored and who has chosen to speak about her results reverberated throughout the Lautenberg hearing, driving home deep concerns about the unnecessary contamination of all our bodies and the critical need for safer chemicals and better policies. For more information about the project and the campaign to reform TSCA, Earliest Exposures can be found at http://watoxics.org/%20and%20www.saferchemicals.org
The projects of the Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Center have been made possible by generous funding from the John Merck Fund, the Kresge Foundation, the New York Community Trust, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and an anonymous foundation.
