Led by a prominent pediatrician, the Center for Children’s Health and the Environment at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine is waging war against industrial chemicals, saying they present significant health risks to children. At a press conference yesterday, Phillip Landrigan, the center’s director, said that the country doesn’t even have minimal toxicity data on more than half of the 3,000 chemicals produced in high volume in the U.S., and that under 10 percent of the chemicals have been tested to determine whether they damage reproductive organs and the developing brain of fetuses. He said the chemicals may also be causing sharp increases in the rates of leukemia and brain cancer in children. The center is running a series of ads in the New York Times about the risks of the chemicals. In response, industry reps have said that rigorous chemical testing procedures are already in place.
