The public was stunned by the recent 60 Minutes story on formaldehyde levels in Lumber Liquidators laminate flooring. Massachusetts Breast Cancer (MBCC) applauds CBS for shining a light on this very serious health concern. However, MBCC continues to be more troubled by the ongoing game of the politics of delay, as it is one that the American public is surely not going to win. As a recent article from the Center for Public Integrity highlights, politics and corporate influence are dictating which chemicals people are being exposed to on a daily basis.We need both the media and the public to be asking why the Environmental Protection Agency is doing fewer and fewer chemical assessments? Or, why Senator Vitter (R) of Louisiana delayed a formaldehyde assessment by threatening to block a key EPA appointment? Or, why Congressman Simpson (R) of Idaho delayed an EPA arsenic assessment which would reveal arsenic to be far more dangerous than previously believed?
Formaldehyde is a hazardous chemical produced in high volume and especially concerning to workers exposed in manufacturing plants. The National Toxicology Program (NTP) in 1981 listed formaldehyde as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” In 2011, NTP listed formaldehyde as “known to be a human carcinogen.” Thirty long years lapsed before the NTP changed formaldehyde’s status, and in thirty years NTP only issued ten reports on carcinogens. That is a curious story – one that needs more attention.
Our government has spent billions of our dollars, and yet cancer rates have almost tripled in the last 60 years. How does our system allow the delay of the release of impactful scientific data for so many years? What other information is being kept from the public? This cannot be a game with our lives, the lives’ of the next generation, nor our ecosystem.