House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree,

D-North Haven

Common Ground Fair speech – September 22, 2007

Preparing for this speech, I googled the news items on “toxic chemicals”. A listing
of recent headlines made me want to crawl back into bed:

Toxic Plastics Chemical in Infant Formula
How to protect your kids from thousands of toxic toys
Bush Rollback Will Hide Data on 600,000 Pounds of Toxic Chemicals
Bisphenol A: Toxic Plastics Chemical in Canned Food
Dangerous chemicals show up in the strangest places
Babies at risk from non-stick chemical
Toxic Chemicals Possibly Transported Through Your Backyard
Exposure to chemicals linked to ADHD, autism
Harmful Chemicals Leaking Out Of Your Household Items?

It is no wonder parents are paranoid. I used to think this stuff was a bit of an
overreaction. My mom’s purchase of the natural washing detergent, shampoo and
even chemical free toilet paper seemed over the top. In fact, even a year or so ago,
I still thought the natural deodorant was too much.

I grew up on an island off the coast of Maine called North Haven. I have lived close
to 25 of my 31 years on the island and I still live there. There are only 350 year
round residents in my hometown - mostly fishermen and caretakers and service
workers. There is a beautiful ocean around us, no polluting factories, and life seems
clean and safe. It is a great place to get away, it was a great place to learn about
small town politics and getting things done, and it is sometimes a great place to hide
from political life. So you get the picture – when you think of an offshore island, you
think of peace and beauty and a clean environment.

So, more than a year ago, when I was asked to join 12 other Mainers to participate
in a body burden study, I thought “fine, for the sake of public policy. This could be
interesting.” The idea was to test 13 Mainers for certain toxic chemicals that have
been known to show up in humans and cause problems. Of course I wasn’t
especially excited about sharing my urine, 12 vials of blood and a few strands of my
hair, but it was fairly simple and painless.

But a few months after I had donated parts of myself for testing, I got the call that
the doctor was ready to talk to me about my results. The doctor, a Harvard Public
Health researcher, was my former primary care doc from Vinalhaven – the island
next door. So, how bad could it be? He was a great guy and I thought I’d be among
their ‘cleanest’ test studies. But a sneaking dread started to set in…why on earth did
I really want to hear this information?

On a Sunday January night in January I talked with Doctor Donahue for more than
two hours. It was fascinating, frightening and after I hung up the phone, I was no
longer just going to be a casual political supporter of a more “rationale chemical
policy.” I was now a convert who couldn’t stop talking about my results. Today,
partially because I know now what is in my own body, I believe that toxic chemicals
are one of the most significant environmental and health issues facing us today.

To give you an idea of how I was feeling, at about 9pm on that Sunday night after
talking to Dr. Donahue, I sat down and wrote this email to every woman I knew of
childbearing age in my address book. I said:

Hey Ladies, I am participating in a study on toxics in the human body and was
recently tested for a number of the major toxics (like mercury, lead, arsenic, etc) as
well as a few you have never heard of that begin with P's and I can't pronounce. I
was shocked by some of my results and what was learned in Maine. This info is
highly relevant to women in their childbearing years - which is why I thought of
many of you, but in general, it is relevant to all of us - men and women.

I had high levels of mercury in my blood – the second highest in the state - and
among the others in the study with similar high levels, we all seemed to have one
thing in common: regular consumption of sushi tuna and a love for seafood. I only
eat it about twice a month, but in general, the doctor said that any women who are
likely to have kids within a couple of years shouldn't eat sushi tuna, at all. I had
heard you should avoid raw fish while pregnant and nursing, but mercury can stay in
the body for a longer time – months, maybe a year, and accumulates in fat (which
leaks into breast milk), so generally, big fish which live longer should be avoided
before, during and while nursing - including tuna, swordfish, shark, king mackerel
etc. Fish that lives for a shorter time is ok - salmon, catfish, shellfish, sardines are
fine.

Mercury is a neurotoxin that affects brain development of fetuses and nursing
children. Behavioral and intelligence testing of a group of 7 and 14 year olds exposed
to mercury in-utero showed increased risk of hyperactivity, inattentiveness, and
memory problems. The test showed that my mercury levels were above the safety
standard for protection of a developing fetus from subtle but permanent brain
damage.

Second, I had high levels of phthalates. I had never heard of phthalates before this
study. But many women especially have high levels of phthalates. Unfortunately the
likely culprit is perfume and personal care products that are scented. Most
commercial perfume in the US contains phthalates, which are a plastic-like substance
which makes perfumes last. It is also in nail polish, and in smelly cosmetic products
– from face creams to shampoos, etc. These same chemicals are also used in
children's soft plastic toys in the US. Use of phthalates in cosmetics and kids toys
have been banned in Europe since 2005, but unfortunately the US hasn't done
anything to control their use.

Phthalates are like mercury in that they last in your body for several months and
build up in fat, and they have been shown in studies to impact the endocrine system
development -- or the reproductive system of fetuses. In a major study, women
with high levels of phthalates when pregnant had sons with 20% smaller genitals.
Kind of a bummer. A joint Swedish-Danish research team found a very strong link
between allergies in children and the phthalates. I would avoid perfumes and
cosmetics except the natural stuff if you have any respect for your future sons.
Check out the labels on all your personal care products and if it lists fragrance, it
likely contains phthalates. Those you smear into your skin are obviously the worst.

Lastly, I had high levels of naturally occurring arsenic. It is probably from the well water I drink when visiting my dad. But if you have a well – get it tested. Maine has naturally high occurring arsenic in the ground and it seeps into our water. Arsenic is a know carcinogen and it is not good. It only lasts in your body for a few days but
can be damaging. You can get a filter to take the arsenic out of your well water.

The other thing I learned was not to consume too many products that come in plastic
bottles - think soda and bottled water. A person in our study only drank bottled
water. She had many, many times more than the recommended CDC amount for a
chemical called bisphenol-A which is directly linked to the plastic in bottled water.
Bisphenol-A is an endocrine disruptor that has been shown to mimic human sex
hormones, which is generally bad for our bodies. While it may be hard to function
without drinking bottled water, it is really important to cut down. They also line soda
cans with this stuff from time to time, or canned foods. Though water is good for
you, and helps wash out some toxins, try to drink bottled water less often or put it in
glass or safe metal lined bottles.

Ok, I could go on and on about all the things I learned, but these seemed like big
ones for women. We consume so much of this stuff without any notice. This is just
the tip of the iceberg. Luckily I had low lead levels, average levels of PBDE’s – which
come from flame-retardants in electronics and furniture, and average levels of 20 or
so other chemicals, most of which I can’t pronounce.

For me, there are more and more reasons to consider natural products, when it
comes to cleaners, cosmetics, even your shampoo as well as really thinking carefully
about what I eat.

Being part of this study allowed me to have several thousand dollars worth of
chemical testing done. While it was interesting from a policy standpoint, mostly this
stuff is just downright scary. But, in going over the results, I was mostly shocked by
the lack of information we have as consumers. This info is especially powerful to
folks with infants, kids, and who are likely to have kids in the next few years - but
does impact us all. I tell you all this because I care about you and want you and
your family to be healthy. Keep in touch, Hannah

I wrote this email the night I heard my test results, and as any of my co-workers,
friends or family can attest, I haven’t shut up about this issue since!
The responses I heard from my friends and co-workers was amazing. Mostly
outrage. “How come no one told us this?” One friend, who recently graduated from
medical school and is try to get pregnant was appreciative and stopped drinking
bottled water and wearing perfume while pregnant. I actually left off a few friends
from my list who were about to have their babies. I didn’t have the heart to send it
to them. It is frustrating to think about all we don’t know that may be allowing us to
make the wrong decisions.

Since participating in this study and getting press about our results, I have received
countless emails, phone calls and words of condolence. Some people have “fixes” to
help me get the chemicals out. The Lewiston Sun Journal led with the headline: “So
Young, So Toxic.” And others on the street and in my community have told me they
are sorry I have so many chemicals in my body. What I am not sure everyone gets
is that as far as I can tell, I am typical. We are all filled with some varying level of
toxic soup. All our bodies are carrying some level of toxic burden.

A famous study of women in the Artic found some of the highest levels of toxic
chemicals in the world, especially in their breast milk. Who could be more remote
and removed from the world than native peoples in the arctic? But, in reality, the fish
and fats these people live on carry the chemicals and pollution we consume every
day in America – and unfortunately, fish and fats seem to concentrate and hold these
chemicals. There is nowhere you can go to avoid the risk.

MOFGA’s own Russell Libby will be speaking shortly on a panel about the chemicals
in his body. Even Mr. MOFGA is quite polluted! So, faced with this evidence, there
are two things we can do.

1) Give up. or….

2) Change our lifestyles to reduce our risk and start fighting like hell the political
battles required to effect real change.

I hope you, like me, will choose the latter option. Luckily, effecting change is my
job as a legislator and what the people of my district elect me to do. But I can’t do it
alone, especially against one of the most powerful industries in the country.

So, What we have done so far in Maine:

While other federal governments around the world – especially in Europe—are
tackling chemicals policy, the US is far behind. As with so many other
environmental issues, it has been up to the states to take action. Maine is already a
national leader in passing new laws to eliminate toxics from our homes and the
environment. We have:

• Phased out mercury products, arsenic-treated wood and brominated flame
retardants

• We have also established the financial responsibilities of manufacturers to pay
for the safe collection and disposal of products containing toxic compounds,
through the e-waste, lead paint and mercury thermostat initiatives

This year, with the help of numerous environmental, public health and fire safety
groups we took on one class of particularly damaging chemicals called PBDE’s –
especially a chemical called deca - which is the only remaining PBDE category flame
retardant that is still used in household materials in the United States. It leaches off
television sets and furniture and onto household dust, and is then inhaled or
ingested.

It’s proven to cause harm to humans and the environment, as scientific research has
found the deca chemical in animals, human breast milk and fat tissue, and deca is
clearly linked to slower development in children and other health risks. One
particularly bad thing about deca is that when it burns it creates an especially toxic
and dark smoke, damaging and dangerous for our firefighters.

A series of tests performed on mice pups by the Maine CDC and by researchers in
Sweden showed decreased motor skills, including reflexes and physical strength,
after a single exposure to deca. Studies show that children and adults in the United
States have 10 to 100 times the amount of PBDEs in their bodies that Europeans do,
because the U.S. is the largest consumer of PBDE flame-retardants in the world.
Deca shows up in Maine’s harbor seals, in bird eggs, and almost everywhere in the
natural environment you might care to look.

We also know that there are safer and effective alternatives to deca. Obviously,
flame retardants provide fire safety which is important. But certain companies like
Sony, Apple, Panasonic and IKEA are already moving away from deca to safer
alternatives. They might be motivated by health concerns, or liability concerns, but
it is a promising trend to see manufacturers move in that direction voluntarily.
Unfortunately, hundreds of other companies, especially those who produce low-cost
technology, still use deca in their products and the chemical companies that make
this product are fighting hard to increase its usage in whole new lines of products.

Our bill, which we passed, will phase out deca in furniture starting 2008, and
electronics in 2010. The bill I sponsored had the strong support of all of the major
Maine firefighter organizations – who were among our best allies in a fight to ban a
flame retardant, the Natural Resources Council of Maine, the Environmental Health
Strategy Center, the Maine chapters of the American Lung Association Academy of
Pediatrics, and a host of more than 30 environmental and health advocates
statewide. The only opponent of the bill was the out-of-state chemical industry.

The day of the hearing made me very proud. Maine people from across the state
packed into the Natural Resources Committee room to support the bill. There were
pregnant women, Maine based researchers, farmers, doctors, environmentalists,
parents, and grandparents. On the other side of the issue were five people. Two
were paid lobbyists who represented the industry. One was the industry’s lawyer,
and another worked for the chemical industry. The last man was a burn victim who
had been paid by the chemical industry to come to Maine and testify against our bill.

Despite the chemical industry’s inability to rally any support for their position from
average Mainers at the public hearing, they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars
on a media campaign on the television and in newspapers, trying to convince
Mainers to call their legislators and tell them not to ban deca. The campaign
flopped, and maybe even backfired - few legislators got calls, and by the end of the
session we passed the bill with near unanimous margins in both the House and the
Senate. It was not a partisan issue and my good friend, Senator Dana Dow, gave
one of the most articulate speeches I have ever heard on the floor of the Senate
about how this law needed to be a beginning, not an end, of this debate.

We were very proud to win on deca in Maine. We were only the second state in the
country to pass this law and it helps us to continue Maine’s leadership on protection
from toxics. California considered a similar bill this past month and the chemical
lobby spent 10 million dollars to defeat it - and unlike in Maine, the chemical industry
won by two votes.

Victories on individual chemicals like deca are important, but there are literally
hundreds of untested and potentially harmful chemicals in products on shelves
today.

In 1976, when the National Toxic Substances Control Act was enacted, 62,000
chemicals existed. According to a 2005 Government Accounting Office report, the
EPA has required tests on fewer than 200 of those 62,000 chemicals since then. It
is an outrage that the National Toxic Substance Control Act has not been
reauthorized since 1976, despite mountains of evidence leading us to call for more
proactive policies. The Bush administration has even gone so far as to weaken the
EPA’s enforcement of the 1976 Act.

Nationally and in Maine we need to venture beyond specific chemical legislation to
elements of broader reform. Chemical policy has to be about shifting the burden of
proof. Today, it is up to us (whether it be non-profits or universities or government)
to pay for the studies of whether chemicals are bad for us and then prove that they
are damaging in order to get companies to stop using them. How does it makes
sense that consumers and tax payers must pay to figure out what consumer
products we are being sold that might be bad for our health? Reversing the tables
is essential. We must require that the chemical industry prove the safety of
chemicals before they bring them to market and put them into consumer products!

A bill that I’ve submitted for the 2008 legislative session aims to do just that.

I’m proposing a regular and reliable process in Maine of studying, testing and
categorizing the chemicals that manufacturers of products introduce into our homes.
We need to do three major things when it comes to toxic chemicals and these are
also part of the major conclusions of the body burden study I participated in. So
first, we need to:

1) CLOSE THE SAFETY GAP

• Search for safer substitutes for all chemicals shown to be hazardous.
• Require that all industrial chemicals be proven safe, especially for children.

2) CLOSE THE DATA GAP

• Honor the public’s right-to-know which hazardous chemicals are in what products.
• Require manufacturers to provide health and safety data on all industrial chemicals
and require that chemical manufacturers test and prove the safety of all industrial
chemicals in commerce.

3) CLOSE THE TECHNOLOGY GAP

• Invest in research and development (R&D) of bio-based plastics from Maine
potatoes and other “green chemistry” solutions that will boost the state’s economy.
• Establish a Green Chemistry Center for Sustainable Production within the University
of Maine System to assess hazards and alternatives for harmful chemicals
Some aspects of this proposed bill will be an uphill battle this coming session. While
we fought one industry with the deca bill, this bill will attract paid lobbyists and
chemical industry money from around the country. We know we will be swarmed and
we are prepared for the battle, but we can’t do it alone. We need you to get involved
in this political fight to urge the legislature and governor that this is the right thing to
do. We also need to demand that the federal government take up similar reform.
We are battling to do the best we can in our small state. We also need a national
solution to encourage real change.
A good friend asked me on the ferry last week about my speech. She saw that I was
coming to the fair to speak on this topic. She received my email rant last January
and was already aware of this issue and concerned about it. She is smart and
motivated but also the mom of two kids under 3. She is busy with balancing kids
and life, and mostly, she wanted to know what she could do. So, with the able
assistance the Maine Environmental Strategy Center, here are:

The Top Ten Ways to Protect Your Family from Toxic Chemicals

10. EAT FISH LOW IN MERCURY – such as wild salmon, haddock and
shellfish, and AVOID tuna fish, swordfish and shark (including canned tuna and tuna
in sushi).

9. GET THE LEAD OUT – If your house is more than 30 years old, get a lead
inspection, hire a professional to help clean up old lead paint and ask your doctor to
test your young kids for lead exposure. You can also test toys and ceramics for lead
with a simple test kit available at any hardware store.

8. TEST YOUR DRINKING WATER – Many private wells in Maine are
contaminated with arsenic, radon and uranium that leaches from the bedrock.
Prevent cancer – test and treat the water if levels are high.

7. AVOID PVC PLASTIC (also known as VINYL)

6. AVOID PLASTIC BOTTLES – Don’t use plastic baby bottles or plastic
reusable water bottles

5. PURCHASE SAFE BEAUTY PRODUCTS – that are free of PHTHALATES
(pronounced ‘thal - eights’)

4. BEWARE OF TOXIC FLAME RETARDANTS –

3. AVOID ‘MAGIC” COATINGS – furniture, carpets and clothing, Tefloncoated
cookware and greasy fast food wrappers –

2. JOIN A GROUP TO TAKE ACTION -of like-minded people to make a
difference, e.g. Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine www.preventharm.org
http://www.preventharm.org or http://www.cleanandhealthyme.org
http://www.cleanandhealthyme.org

1. CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS and VOTE.
It has taken the chemical industry decades to invent these chemicals and put them
consumer products. The bad news is that we can’t wait decades for a more rationale
and safe policy to protect our health. The other side will spend millions to defeat
real chemical policy reform. Like deca, we can overcome lobbyists and misleading
media with voices of everyday Maine people. Please join this fight. As Margaret Mead
urged us, we can never doubt that a group of thoughtful people can change this
world. And we must. Thank you.