| Chemicals and the environment |
By: Bob Berry
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Another harmful chemical is in the news. In this case, BPA, bisphenol A. This has been on the market for many years and they're just now finding out that is harmful. This is all too often true with so many synthetic chemicals the chemical industry foists on us, the consumer. The government only finds out that they are harmful long after they are first marketed. This is insanity!
A more sane approach would be for the chemical companies to prove their products are harmless before being allowed to market them as is done with the pharmacutical industry.
If this approach had been followed before DDT was first sold, Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" would never have been written as the harmful chemicals and their bad effects that inspired this very good book would not have made it into our environment and the severe damage they caused would not have occurred.
Much has been done to try to protect us consumers from harmful chemicals but, unfortunately, they are not required to be proven safe before first being sold. The proof comes after much harm has been done and then the government has to prove them harmful. As stated above, this is backwards. The chemical companies who want to profit off these chemicals should be required to prove them harmless before being allowed to marked them. |
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