REACH American style

The recent exoneration of vaccinations as suspects in the spike in autism diagnoses has not made questions regarding the cause go away, it has simply shifted the focus. Now, Frank Lautenberg, Democratic senator from New Jersey is drafting legislation that would bolster the Toxic Substances Control Act, in a way that sounds a lot like Europe's REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals). According to an article in the New York Times, under the existing law, of 80,000 chemicals registered in the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency has required safety testing of only 200. "Our children have become test subjects," Lautenberg says.

The story, an op-ed by the NYT's Nick Kristof, also cites a new article by Dr. Philip Landrigan for the Current Opinion in Pediatrics medical journal. Landrigan, who is a professor of pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and chairman of the school's department of preventive medicine, states his belief that chemicals in the environment impact brain development of babies in the womb and as newborns.

The abstract for the article-What causes autism? Exploring the environmental contribution-also points to a lack of chemical testing as the crux of the problem in the U.S. "Children today are surrounded by thousands of synthetic chemicals. Two hundred of them are neurotoxic in adult humans, and 1000 more in laboratory models. Yet fewer than 20% of high-volume chemicals have been tested for neurodevelopmental toxicity."

Most companies supplying chemicals and plastics are global ones, and if they want to serve the huge EU market have already had their materials REACH certified, but if they haven't, they might be forced to in the relatively near future.