Today two friends forwarded me this link from an Op-Ed columnist in the NYT (thanks Melissa and David!). It’s right up my alley – and I thought it would be good to share.

Nicholas Kristoff’s column poses the very interesting questions: “What if breast cancer in the United States has less to do with insurance or mammograms and more to do with contaminants in our water or air — or in certain plastic containers in our kitchens? What if the surge in asthma and childhood leukemia reflect, in part, the poisons we impose upon ourselves?”

Giving the health care system an overhaul does sound like a good time to deeply evaluate our society’s exposure to chemicals and investigate all possible connections to health issues that are nearing epidemic levels – like breast cancer, asthma and food allergies, to name only a few. It’s time we give these issues the attention they deserve, and that we stop succumbing to the pressures of the incredibly powerful and even more dangerous chemical companies.

A report came out this week by the Associated Press stating that over the past 10 years, the drinking water in schools across the country have been tested and found to contain unsafe levels of a variety toxins including lead and pesticides. The report said that “contaminants have surfaced at public and private schools in all 50 states – in small towns and inner cities alike.”

It seems as though this has been an ongoing problem and the EPA just can’t keep up with it. Actually, that’s suggesting that the EPA has been trying to do something. But according to the report, the issue has basically gone unaddressed. Not good.

Apparently, schools with well water have the most significant problem. They comprise about 8-11% of the nation’s 132,500 schools. According to the report, about 1 in 5 of schools with their own water supply were found to have “violated the Safe Drinking Water Act in the past decade, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency analyzed by the AP.” But that’s not to say schools with public water supplies are safe. At particular risk are older schools where lead levels can be high.

According to the EPA, the incidence of contamination has increased dramatically over the past decade largely because they have adopted stricter standards regarding what is considered unsafe. Hmm – that sounds like a pretty lame excuse. Clearly they adopted stricter standards for a reason, right? So it’s not as though there isn’t an issue. If anything, they’re suggesting that it has been an issue for a substantially longer time.

Of course, there is no easy fix for this. The EPA does not have the authority to require school systems to test their water. Instead, the responsibility is spread across many local, state and federal agencies. And we all know how well they work together!

In doing some research online, I came across this great summary about concerns regarding phthalates from the Children’s Health Environmental Coalition (which, by the way, is a great resource for keeping a “healthy home”):

http://www.checnet.org/HealtheHouse/education/articles-detail.asp?Main_ID=509

So here’s the thing – I think we are at the tip of a very distressing iceberg with phthalates. I have just been invited to join in a conference call next Wednesday from the BreastCancerFund.org group. The topic will be the new evidence linking breast cancer and environmental exposures. The invitation mentions that they will be discussing “emerging evidence suggesting early life exposures to these chemicals are critical to a child’s later-life breast cancer risk.”

A child safety act was just passed in the US Senate which included a ban on phthalates in children’s toys. And this week there was a report that showed evidence of endocrine disruptors and pharmaceuticals in the drinking water in 20 major metropolitan areas.

Again – tip of the iceberg. Expect to see a lot more about combined impact of the chemicals, led by phthalates, that we are exposed to in our daily lives through various means.