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by Bill Walsh, National Coordinator February 24, 2006 Researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital drew blood from the umbilical cords of 300 newborns and reported this month that ninety-nine percent of the babies were born with trace levels of perfluorooctanoic acid, usually called PFOA or C-8. [1] This industrial chemical was, until very recently, a critical component in the manufacture of certain fabric and carpet treatment products such as Scotchgard™ and Stainmaster™, as well as Teflon™ and other nonstick and stain-resistant products. [2] It is well understood that chemical exposures in utero and during childhood can produce devastating health problems in adulthood. [3] The evidence increasingly suggests that early life exposures to certain chemicals can lead to health problems not only in adulthood, but also down through subsequent generations.[4] The Society of the Plastics Industry assures us on a website named "PFOA-facts.com" that the results of a 2005 EPA risk assessment "provides added assurance to the public regarding the safety of PFOA" in our newborns. [5] That is a curious "fact." On February 15, 2006, the EPA's Science Advisory Board voted unanimously that the PFOA in a newborn's blood should be considered a likely carcinogen. [6] How reassuring is that? The American carpet and textile industry has not felt reassured since the 3M Company signaled its intention to stop producing PFOAs back in the year 2000. Though neither the production nor the use of PFOAs is forbidden by law -- even today -- many responsible US manufacturers of building materials and furnishings took a precautionary approach [7] and began phasing-out their use of PFOAs years before the EPA Science Advisory Board finished its review of the chemical. No LEED™ [8] credit is available for PFOA-free materials, nor is there such a thing as a PFOA-free certification. More to the point, had someone proposed a LEED™ credit for "PFOA elimination" in 2000, it would not have passed the test which the US Green Building Council's Technical Science Advisory Board established during its evaluation of the "PVC elimination" credit that was proposed that same year. During the same five year period that building product manufacturers independently took a precautionary approach to eliminate PFOA use (2000 - 2005), the chemical and plastics manufacturers' trade associations lobbied the US Green Building Council to take the opposite approach with respect to dioxin and PCBs, which, like PFOAs, are a byproduct of certain building materials, are highly toxic to humans, and persist a long time in the environment. [9] The industry groups argued that it might even be counterproductive, be more hazardous, to replace established chemicals with unfamiliar substitutes. Yet that is exactly what the 3M Company did by replacing PFOAs with chemical cousins that have not yet been fully tested for health impacts. The Scotchgard™ and Stainmaster™ story is a precautionary tale for the green building movement. Instead of celebrating building products that represent leading-edge investment and market support for precautionary approaches to acknowledged health risks -- Shaw Ecoworks™ Carpet (which uses neither PVC nor PFOAs) and Firestone TPO Roofing Membrane (which uses neither PVC nor brominated flame retardants [10]) to name just two -- these innovations go unrewarded, and are arguably penalized by green standards that fail to address acknowledged chemical threats. Chemical and plastics trade associations have so paralyzed many of the green building movement's deliberative bodies that they are incapable of stating meaningful policy or programs with regard to PFOAs, dioxin, and other notorious persistent chemicals targeted for global reduction and elimination. [11] As a result, the green building movement has been rendered mute on one of the biggest stories concerning building materials in the last five years. How reassuring is that?
HEALTHY BUILDING NEWS SOURCES
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