The Brockovich Report

Broken homes. We have a lot of them.

Do you have any idea how many single mothers leading lives of "quiet desperation" contact me? Single mothers, struggling to put food on the table, struggling to parent well when they also have to work 50 hours a week to survive; struggling with substandard homes, substandard health care, struggling to cope with vaccines, medicines, produce, and goods they don't trust to be healthy.

You mothers out there, keep mothering. Keep doing what you're doing. Mothers don't have to be fathers, you just have to be there. Let your kids know that you wish things were different, but plenty of kids do fine without a father around. Don't go for serial dating while you're looking for a substitute father; surviving serial temporary fathers is harder on your child than having no father at all. Emphasize your child's strengths. Turn to the healthy relationships in your extended family to provide a vision of male role models.

The father's role is to be a support person for the mother, a breadwinner, a role model, and one of the socializers of the children.

Where are the fathers out there?

I know I'll get email about this, but I'm not saying this to the fathers that are already doing their job. If you're there, you know how important you are to your family's survival. I'm sure you look out of your window every day and see all of those unfathered children out there, and your heart bleeds for them too.

I remember a day years ago, when a neighbor's daughter was standing outside of her house. Let's call her Katy, for the sake of anonymity. Katy was wearing a pretty dress, and very excited. So my daughter talked to Katy for a while, then came back home. I found her standing on the porch, facing out toward the street, watching cars go by, seeming hopeful and hopeless at the same time. She'd look closely at each car as if she were waiting for someone, but then the car would drive away, and with each passing, she was that much more disappointed.

I finally asked her what was wrong.

She said, "Katie visited her father for the weekend."

I found ways to distract her, but there were still weekends after that where I would find my daughter waiting in her pretty dress, waiting for her father to come. And he didn't. I can still see her walking back inside, disappointed and somehow gallant, still believing that he would be there for her, not when it was convenient for him, but when she needed him.

There were plenty of days when I passed up serving my family nutritious food for stuff I could afford just so we could make ends meet. When we had too many starches on the table, because they do such a great job of stretching a meal.

To the absentee fathers out there: you already know the obvious, that without your contribution, your kids are more likely to be inadequately housed, and more likely to be going hungry. Do you know that when you are involved in your children's education, your kids are more likely to get "A"s, enjoy school, participate in extracurricular activities and less likely to repeat a grade? Did you know your being there helps make your child more well rounded, more confident, less emotionally unstable? That fathers who acknowledge their children as capable and beautiful individuals, have children who grow up knowing that they are loved for who they are. But children who don't get that kind of attention from their fathers will be insecure, and have low self esteem. For the rest of their lives.

To you fathers out there who don't manage to make time for your children, or provide money for their support: you're doing an evil thing. You are biologically and socially designed to be half of their support. You know what would happen to your house if half of it's foundation was removed? It would collapse. That is what you are doing to your children: collapsing their lives.

Not only are you stealing your child's childhood. Just like that house with half of the foundation gone, you are setting your child up for failure.

Broken homes lead to broken lives.

You absentee fathers, step up to the plate, and be a father. Before it is too late.

I do want to save nature, and keep as much of the earth pristine as we can. Certainly, I am all for clean air, and clean water, and clean energy. Absolutely, I want the people in Hinkley to be able to drink their water without being afraid they or their children are going to die of some kind of pollution-induced cancer. Sure I want the people near some Australian plant to be able to drink their water without fearing Benzene intake. Don't we all?

But we have to remember...people are part of nature. At the heart of it, people are the reason I want to clean up. We have to love the people too.

I want to remember the people out there who are at the bottom of the "feeding chain." There are census statistics defining millions of home-owning Americans as poor. I'm not going to play the statistics game; I don't know where to draw the line between those suffering hardship and those struggling to survive. Certainly if you own your own home, you're better off than someone living in a cardboard box under an expressway bridge; but what if after paying your mortgage and utility bill, your taxes and the gas (or bus fare) to get you to work, you only can afford to feed your family starches and low quality food; or only for three weeks of the month? What about when you're barely making it, and then you get sick? Overcrowding, temporary hunger, difficulty getting medical care and impending destitution--the difference is a matter of degree.

The point is that even here in this most prosperous country in the world, there are people suffering real material hardship. Millions of people live from paycheck to paycheck. Some of them have no paychecks at all. And what is one factor behind this?

I am on the record for beating the "Made in the USA" drum for a while now, it has been pointed out to me by some of you readers that not everything that says "Made in the USA" actually IS made in the USA. John Bowe, author of "Nobodies" points out many labels on products which say they are made here aren't.

Maybe we need to make sure that the labels that say "Made in America" ARE made here, by American workers. There's enough "American" stuff being manufactured outside of this country that, if it were actually made here, it would put paychecks in the pockets of some of our unemployed; feed some of our hungry children. It would ease the struggle some of our own people who are fighting to survive.

I want to know that when I "buy American," that not only am I getting a sound, healthy product, I am also easing American hardship, feeding American hunger, sheltering American families.

I'm not talking about turning my back on the rest of the world. But it's like those old adages:, physician, heal thyself. First things first. I want to get my own house in order.

It is my dream that we can develop healthy, dynamic ways to care about our own needy, or we can ignore them and pretend they don't exist. And here's hoping that we do care, and we do find ways to show it. I have high expectations for us, because, in America this is still true: the dream of today is the reality of tomorrow.

Here's a fact I saw in a Reuter's article: 80 percent of toys are made in China. (I can only assume that is American toys. )

Congress is looking into Mattel.

The U.S. Congressional Committee panel scheduled a Sept 19 hearing on lead tainted toys. And well it should. Seventeen companies just recalled lead tainted toys made in China and they are under scrutiny.

Safeguarding our children from potentially toxic toys should be a given. And now that there's a push toward fine tuning this protection, how can the government proceed to work on dealing with the problem?

For one thing, they should upsize the Consumer Product Safety Commission, whose job is to "protect the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction."

The agency doesn't operate in a vacuum. Their proposed 2008 budget is listed here, online:

http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PUBS/REPORTS/2008plan.pdf

According to the report, ninety percent of Consumer Product Safety Commission's funding is absorbed by staff compensation and staff-related space rental costs. The largest cost increase is staff salaries. The January report projects that CPSC’s current staffing level will increase by $2,167,000, a projected 3.0 percent Federal pay increase ($1,076,000). The increase also includes other costs such asincreased Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) contributions ($454,000), two extra paid days in 2008 ($295,000), staff within-grade step increases ($158,000), career ladder promotions ($144,000), and health insurance premium increases ($40,000). No details are included indicating the exact salaries of various positions.

But here are some of the cost-cutting measures listed in their plan:

• Over $1 million per year as a result of closing over 40 field offices, converting the jobs to telecommuting.
  
• $300,000 per year by closing the last three regional offices in 2005
  
• 5.6 million per year as a result of recent staff reductions and reorganization in 2006 and 2007
  

They freely admit they have "maximized staff efficiencies and cannot absorb further reductions without having an impact on its product safety activities."

I know the running budget sounds like a lot, but I don't presume to be a number cruncher. For most people, numbers in the millions, billions and trillions are an incomprehensible blur. Let's hope these numbers which were composed in January will be upgraded to compensate increased need now that there's recognition of the scope of the problem.

Don't we need more staff? More offices? More accessibility? Are there any small business owners out there who operate on a shoestring who are thinking Aren't there some broom closets in public buildings that can be converted to small offices, giving some of those telecommuters a local home base with minimum overhead? Can't punitive fees imposed on guilty suppliers defray the expense of a consumer protection agency sized appropriately to a superpower? Think of it--Toys 'R' Us alone recalled one: 27,000 Chinese-Made Lead-Tainted Coloring Cases. How many safety commission man hours would a fine on the Chinese source provide?

So this is what we should do: raise the standards, increase the staff, and give the enforcers teeth to back up the contemporary standards.

Because the problems aren't going away. When lead is under control--lead being something whose current lowball standards were negotiated thirty years ago--there are an awful lot of controllable toxins running rampant, toxins that we need to monitor.

What do you think?

I've already talked about how I am becoming a more careful shopper.

Sometimes being an American has a lot to do with shopping. Certainly raising children has an unavoidable shopping element, especially during school season. Or summer-camp season. Or any change of season. Or birthday season, which is any time. I remember countless shopping emergencies when I used to run down to the closest retail store and pick up a particular blouse for someone's cheerleading costume, emergency socks for gym, etc.... Looking even farther back, I remember visiting discount stores, especially when the kids were little--KMart, or WalMart or Target--the store names don't matter. Who can resist those tiny infant clothes? But there are always moments in the life of a mother when she's got to pinch the pennies until they scream for mercy. Fortunately, there were always discount children's clothes to be had. Inexpensive, cute, and they didn't have to last that long, because the children were going to outgrow them in a matter of weeks or months anyway.

I remember back in the day when I shopped with a great degree of confidence, because all I was looking for was something I could afford that fit well, looked decent, and had enough cotton in it to breathe. All I had to worry about was workmanship.

I never worried that I might be dressing my children in clothing saturated in embalming fluid.

But I recently received an email about something quite disturbing, and when I started looking into the situation, the facts were even worse than I had imagined: a New Zealand investigative television show did some snooping and reported the formaldehyde content of children's clothes.

Who knew there was formaldehyde in clothes? Apparently it is added to decrease the possibility of mold, make them stain resistant, or to prevent wrinkling.

The results of testing ranged from 230 ppm to 18,000 ppm. 20 parts per million is considered dangerous to a human being. Some tests revealed 900 times that. Ph levels were also tested; anything out side of the 4 to 7.5 range is likely to be damaging to skin.

Here are the lastest test results (from New Zealand):
Women's corduroys: 290 parts per million.
A spiderman T-shirt: 1,400 parts per million.
Pyjamas: 3,400 parts per million.
Kids pants: 16,000 parts per million.
White stain resistant pants: 18,000 parts per million.

Investigators determined that the source of the problem was either Chinese fabric or clothing made in China. In fact, ten percent of the tested clothes revealed one or more of twenty-two aromatic amine dyes which are banned in Europe because they are known carcinogens.

Last month, two young boys (in New Zealand) were injured when their supposedly fire retardant pajamas (labeled "low fire danger") caught fire. Guess where their clothes came from? China.

The US Environmental Protection Agency deems formaldehyde a volatile organic compound, and "a probable human carcinogen." They concede that exposure can cause breathing problems and asthma, and eye, skin and nasal irritation. The amount of formaldehyde given off by garments is relative to climate and humidity. Multiple washings and hanging in the sun may reduce the content, but if you have something that is called "permanent," it's going to be awfully hard to get rid of all that formaldehyde.

Even worse, the Environmental Protection Agency hasn't managed to eliminate any industrial compounds since it tried to control Asbestos. Clothing containing formaldehyde levels this high are banned in Europe, and are likely soon to be banned in New Zealand–they plan to adopt European guidelines–but they are still legal here in the US.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a World Health Organization panel of 26 scientists from 10 countries, has concluded that formaldehyde is a human carcinogen contributing to nasopharyngeal cancer and possibly leukemia.

Wake up America and smell the formaldehyde. It's time to get these toxic compounds out of our children's clothes--out of ALL of our clothes. It's time for "Made In America" to mean something again.

What is it going to take to get corrective action?

The wise ones of the world know a lot about secrets.

Einstein said, "Know where to find the information and how to use it - That's the secret of success." And how right he was, more so now than in his own time. Because we live in the information age, an age when information is a commodity, easily found, sometimes bought and sold, and rarely kept secret. It's hard to believe in this day and time that there are secrets that can be kept. It is inevitable that secrets are found out, especially big ones. This all reminds me of a conference I once attended, where the speaker said "Look for the garbage." It's all there, in the garbage, and if you look long enough and hard enough, you'll find the secrets. Racine said, "There are no secrets that time does not reveal." and I believe that is true. I've seen it time and again, and now at this time, we are seeing it unfolding before our eyes in Portsmouth, where some deadly secrets have come to light.

The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant is a former Department of Energy Nuclear facility currently involved in a case about to go to trial. The government had been keeping a secret. For many decades, the Portsmouth facility released radioactive and nonradioactive chemicals into the air, water and soil. Nonradioactive materials include chromium, fluorides, trichloroethylene (TCE), nitric acid, chlorine and asbestos.

These are some pretty harmful secrets to be keeping.

How can these things harm us? Let me count the ways:

Breathing in chromium in a compound like chromic acid or chromium trioxide, can cause irritation to the nose, such as runny nose, sneezing, itching, nosebleeds, ulcers, and holes in the nasal septum. Long-term exposure to chromium has been associated with lung cancer.

Intake of fluorine compounds over an extended period of time can cause yellowing of teeth, hypothyroidism, brittle bones, and has a corrosive effect on the mucous membrane which lines the gut.

Trichloroethylene causes fever, tremors, sinus tachycardia and loss of consciousness.

Nitric acid causes a burning sensation on the skin, serious skin burns, pain, yellow discoloration, cough, labored breathing. If consumed, it causes abdominal pain, internal burning sensation and shock. Of course all of this is just short term exposure. Who knows what it does over time?

Inhaling chlorine causes breathing difficulty, throat swelling, and pulmonary edema. That's not all. Chlorine intake can cause severe pain in the throat, severe pain or burning in the nose, eyes, ears, lips, or tongue, loss of vision, burns, necrosis in the skin and underlying tissues.

And as far as the asbestos--it causes mesothelioma, which is fatal.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the radioactive pollution: uranium and technetium. Uranium intake damages the kidneys which try to filter it out. 50 to 150 mg causes death. Technetium exposure causes nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain. And of course, it has a radioactive half life of 212000 years.

So, let's get back to the residents of Piketon Ohio who have been exposed to all of this. No one disclosed the exposure to the residents. Yesterday, on Sept 4, Judge Walter Rice was scheduled to set a date for a jury trial.

I feel I have a personal stake in this particular fight. I've met some of the residents involved; they came to one of my speeches.

I address the last of this blog directly to you, residents of Piketon Ohio. I will we watching the news to follow the events of the upcoming trial, and I hope and pray that all goes well for you. You never waivered in your convictions.

Winning takes a fight. Though there are no pleasures in a fight, it will nevertheless be a pleasure to see you win. Stay strong. and know you are already winners!

Erin