BPA in baby bottles. Phthalates in children’s books. Lead in toys. As parents’ awareness of potential toxins in the home has grown in recent years, so has their anxiety. Minnesota has helped lead the way to regulate worrisome chemicals, and federal reform.
Phthalates. Dioxin. Deca. Bisphenol A.
A half-dozen years ago, only scientists knew these words. Now, they’re bandied about in early-childhood education classes and online parenting message boards.
Parents have been told that potentially harmful chemicals are lurking in everything from the plastic of their infants’ baby bottles to paint on toys, dust bunnies behind the television and the fragrance in toddler shampoo.
Within the next few weeks, a bill to reform the nation’s laws regulating chemicals is expected to be introduced in Congress. The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says tightening chemical regulation is one of the Obama administration’s environmental priorities.
How did concern over chemicals move from obscurity onto center stage? Certainly, the change is due to recent advances in understanding how chemicals enter and affect the human body, and to the shift to a Democratic Congress and administration. But it also has to do with parents’ rising worries and efforts to mobilize their concerns into a movement for reform.
“People really started to pay attention when there were concerns about lead in Thomas the (Tank Engine toys). That was three holiday seasons ago, and it was all over the news,” said Lindsay Dahl of the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition. “That was the beginning of a wave of consumers starting to realize that there are chemicals in toys and personal products that can sometimes have negative health outcomes.
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