Ecology Center — Newsletter

I like to think of myself as reasonably well balanced and not too overboard in most of my views. I try, like most of you, to recycle what I can, buy responsibly, drive a fuel-efficient vehicle. And I trust, like most of you, that the products I bring into my home on a daily basis are reasonably safe. But is this wise?

Disturbingly, I think the answer is no. I once read, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” I would add, “When the going gets weird, the normal must turn weird to cope.” And the going is weird when we dutifully pay good money to big business to be poisoned.

Sorry to be the one to say it, but it’s time for all of us to ditch the ‘reasonably well-balanced’ stuff. It’s time to become a paranoid ecofreak -- you know, the type who never eats out because they don’t know where the food comes from, are always rumpled because they only wear organic cotton and hemp, will drink only filtered water, buy nothing new because it all off-gases, won’t drive cars, and stink because they use crystal “deodorant.”

Imagine if everyone freakishly refused to buy poisonous products. Soon this would be normal. Soon tolerating being poisoned by corporations would be weird. After all, we are the consumers who wield the almighty dollar and ultimately get to choose what we buy and therefore what is produced. Frankly, I suspect even a healthy effective deodorant would be created if we demanded it. Now that’s a beautiful thought for ecofreaks everywhere.

But where is an ecofreak to getreliable product information? First, let me tell you where an ecofreak cannotget such information: Consumer Reports -- specifically their website, www.greenerchoices.com. As the web-site’s name implies, I expected to find aknowledgeable and tested list of envi-ronmentally preferable product choices.

What I found instead was superficial bordering on ignorant. The website mentions computers, for example, which contain brominated flame retardants (BFRs), but says they are only hazardous in production and disposal, thus ignoring a recent study showing BFRs present in measurable quantities in house dust. I was immediately annoyed in part because I have always found Consumer Reports’ environmental ratings of products to be sketchy and to downplay or ignore toxic exposure and environmental harm.

Having reinforced my previous impressions, I decided to give it another chance and looked up pesticides. Nothing. And though Consumers Union’s main website says, “Gardening is the most popular leisure activity in the United States,” there is no mention of pesticides, lawn treatments, or chemical-free gardening (even though it’s cheaper as well as healthier). No links to such information either. It’s not a secret that several popular pesticides have been taken off the market by the EPA for health reasons. So why does CU, “whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves,” remain silent on the topic?

There is also no mention of PFC’s, a chemical in Teflon and other nonstick pans that when overheated on household stoves kills pet birds (even Dupont admits this). No mention of VOC’s, volatile organic compounds, off-gassed by most carpets, gasoline, and other products.

One might argue that CU is not an environmental organization so why should they focus on toxics? But research shows that the dust in our homes, the blood in our bodies, and breast milk we produce are contaminated with unacceptable levels of toxic chemicals. And the contamination comes largely from products we buy and consume everyday. Surely this is as important a safety and consumer issue as auto crash-test results and product recalls, which CU covers abundantly.

O.K., some credit is due. Being under the auspices of the revered Consumers Union, the greenerchoices web site will be visited by many consumers who may learn some good information about greening up their homes.

But if you find yourself feeling like an ecofreak, and I predict many of you will, if not at this moment then soon, you can find the information you really need about household toxics from our own Ecology Center web site: www.ecocenter.org.

the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, www.svtc.org, which focuses on high tech products like computers
the Washington Toxics Coalition, www.watoxics.org, which has a great “Toxics in the Home” section
the Greenpeace web site’s “Chemical Home” section: www.greenpeace.org
and last but not least, visit www.safer-products.org, and click on the house graph