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Cosmetics contain chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects and other serious health consequences. More than 10,000 chemical ingredients are utilized in cosmetics and personal care products. Incidence of breast cancer is increasing and believed to be driven largely by environmental toxins. Nearly 90% percent of chemical ingredients in cosmetics have never been evaluated for safety by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the Cosmetics Industry Review panel. As a result numerous products may represent a significant public health risk.
Studies show that pesticides are both a trigger and root cause of asthma,
particularly in children. Data from the Center for Disease Control's 2005 National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals found
76% of Americans have chlorpyrifos metabolites in their bodies. Additionally, more than 25% of Americans have 2,4-D in their bodies, with
highest concentrations also found in children ages 6-11.
Chlorpyrifos (the active ingredient in Dow Chemical's pesticide Dursban) was banned for household us in 2001 largely due to its hazards to children but are allowed for continued use on agricultural crops. Dow Chemical is the sole U.S. producer of 2-4D, which it sells to other chemical and lawn care companies to become part of the end use products. Over 70 different products contain 2,4-D as their active ingredient including Scots's Weed and Feed, Miracle Grow Weed and Feed, ACE Green Turf Weed and Feed , and many more.
Since the mid-1980s, asthma rates in the United States have increased
substantially and have reached epidemic levels, particularly in young
children. In the U.S. alone, around 16 million people suffer from asthma.
Asthma is a serious chronic disorder of the lungs characterized by recurrent
attacks of bronchial constriction, which cause breathlessness, wheezing, and
coughing. Asthma is a dangerous, and in some cases life-threatening disease.
Researchers have found that pesticide exposure can induce a poisoning effect
linked to asthma.
On the night of December 2nd 27 tons of poisonous gas including methyl isocyanate leaked from a storage tank at the Union Carbide Corporation's (UCC) pesticide plant-now a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical-that took the lives of more than 7,000 people within a matter of days causing the worst chemical disaster in history.
Dow Chemical's CEO Andrew Liveris and board of directors face a growing shareholder challenge over the handling of the Bhopal disaster and the controversy over the ongoing criminal and civil litigation in which Union Carbide remains a named defendant. Twenty-two years later the exposure to toxins in Bhopal, India has resulted in additional deaths of 15,000 people as well as chronic illness for over 100,000 more. Contamination of soil and groundwater at the surrounding facility continues to this day.
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