AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has published a list of 49 chemicals whose everyday use it deems dangerous to the health of Maine children, but an environmental policy group is urging stronger action.
The DEP met a July 1 deadline set by the Legislature requiring it to adopt a list of up to 70 Chemicals of High Concern. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention aided in compiling the list. The list follows last year’s changes to the Kid Safe Products Act.
“We congratulate the Administration for taking these first, small steps toward safer products for Maine families,” Sierra Fletcher, public affairs and policy director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center, said in a statement this week. “Now it’s time to take great strides to protect the health of Maine’s children. The State should require product makers to replace these dangerous chemicals with safer alternatives.”
Fletcher said she was disappointed that more chemicals weren’t included in the list.
Maine’s new list of Chemicals of High Concern includes toxic substances commonly found in many products in the home, including shower curtains and other plastic items, furniture and carpets, as well as personal care products such as nail polishes, lotions and sunscreens.
Phthalates, widely used to soften vinyl plastic; parabens, preservatives in shampoos and lotions; flame retardants; sunscreen chemicals; perfluorinated chemicals found in fabric treatments; and siloxanes found in personal care products were highlighted among the 49 chemicals by the Maine DEP.
“We’re disappointed that more chemicals weren’t formally recognized as threats to children’s health,” said Mike Belliveau, executive director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center. “The science supports a longer list.”
Many of the chemicals named can harm children’s development, causing learning disabilities, reproductive problems, cancer and other diseases later in life, according to the center. It said that several of the chemicals are known to disrupt the hormone system that regulates the functioning of healthy bodies.
A 2007 Maine study found several of the listed chemicals in blood, urine and hair of Maine residents.
In 2010, the first priority chemicals named under the Kid Safe Products Act were bisphenol A and nonylphenol ethoxylates. To date, manufacturers have reported the use of these two chemicals in paint, toys, containers for infant formula and baby food, and cosmetics, according to the center.
In 2011, despite opposition from the governor and the chemical industry, the Legislature upheld a ban on BPA in plastic baby bottles and sippy cups and strengthened the law to require the DEP to identify Chemicals of High Concern.
DEP spokeswoman Samantha DePoy-Warren said anyone can petition the department to add or remove a chemical from the list.
“That’s why we have the BPA ban now,” said DePoy-Warren.
DePoy-Warren said that because 49 chemicals are on the list out of a maximum of 70 spots, there is room for more to be added. The 49 chemicals listed are the only ones that met all the criteria needed to be placed on the list, she said.
After the first article on this came out, I tried to find the list but it’s buried in their 7/1/12 report. Contract the DEP for help in finding it.
Some may argue that more chemicals shold be on it. I question some that are. Quartz? So much for sand boxes. Granted, you can get silicosis after many years of inhaling sand and dirt dust, but you’d get far more living on a dirt road.
Why did the article spend so much space presenting the “it’s not enough” perspective and not enough from “it’s just fine”?
Where was Big Plastic? Where was Big Arsenic ? (Now that I’m testing my well water, I’m SHOCKED of the natural, background level of Arsenic we’ve been drinking for 50 years).
Of course adding more chemicals should, and will be, discussed and debated. Yet, the usual cast of characters will NEVER be happy with such a list from Government… That’s how they keep their sources of funding fired up to contribute more and more.
Hi Tom – And where are pesticides, which people ingest in their food every day – without their knowledge or consent?
Chemical-dependent growers used to use Lead-Arsenate as a pesticide before the “wonder chemicals” like DDT were created in the labs. So the arsenic is, of course, along with the lead, still here, along with the natural arsenic. It never goes away.
Arsenic is mentioned in the list, but not lead.
Manmade chemicals used in agriculture and manufacturing should, I believe, be neutralized before being released into the air and water. We all know – common sense – that this poisoning of our only habitat can’t go on forever……nor for much longer without serious implications for us all.
Table 10: List of Chemicals of High Concern
CAS Chemical
50-00-0 Formaldehyde
71-43-2 Benzene
75-01-4 Vinyl chloride
79-94-7 Tetrabromobisphenol A
84-61-7 Dicyclohexyl phthalate; DCHP
84-66-2 Diethyl phthalate
84-74-2 DBP (Dibutyl phthalates); di-n-butyl phthalate
84-75-3 Di-n-Hexyl Phthalate
85-68-7 BzBP; Benzyl butyl phthalate; Butyl benzyl phthalate; BBzP
87-68-3 Hexachlorobutadiene
91-59-8 2-Naphthylamine
92-69-3 4-Hydroxybiphenyl; 4-Phenylphenol
92-87-5 Benzidine and its salts
94-13-3 Propyl paraben
94-26-8 Butyl paraben
95-53-4 2-Aminotoluene
99-76-3 Methyl paraben
99-96-7 p-Hydroxybenzoic acid
100-42-5 Styrene
101-14-4 4,4´-Methylenebis(2-Chloroaniline)
106-89-8 Epichlorohydrin
106-93-4 1,2-Dibromoethane
106-99-0 1,3-Butadiene
108-88-3 Toluene
115-96-8 Tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate
117-81-7 DEHP (Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate); bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate
118-74-1 Hexachlorobenzene
120-47-8 Ethyl paraben
131-55-5 Benzophenone-2 (Bp-2), 2,2′,4,4′-tetrahydroxybenzophenone
131-56-6 2,4-Dihydroxybenzophenon; Resbenzophenone
131-70-4 Mono-n-butylphthalate
140-66-9 4-tert-Octylphenol; 1,1,3,3-Tetramethyl-4-butylphenol
556-67-2 Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane
608-93-5 Benzene, pentachloro-
1163-19-5 2,2′,3,3′,4,4′,5,5′,6,6′-Decabromodiphenyl ether; BDE-209
1634-04-4 Methyl tert-butyl ether; MTBE
1763-23-1 Perfluorooctanyl sulphonic acid and its salts; PFOS
1806-26-4 Phenol, 4-octyl-
2425-85-6 2-Naphthalenol, 1-[(4-methyl-2-nitrophenyl)azo]-
5466-77-3 2-ethyl-hexyl-4-methoxycinnamate
7439-97-6 Mercury & mercury compounds
7440-02-0 Nickel & nickel compounds
7440-38-2 Arsenic & Arsenic compounds
7440-41-7 Beryllium & Beryllium compounds
7440-43-9 Cadmium
14808-60-7 Quartz
25013-16-5 Butylated hydroxyanisole
25637-99-4 Hexabromocyclododecane
27193-28-8 Phenol, (1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl)-; Octylphenol
Yup, this is the table I found but I had to deduce thast it was the new, announced list inthis artcile) owing to a different title and only by scanning the report issued 7/1/12. I’ve suggested that they provide a discrete URL to table 10 either with annotation or further links to such annotation.
I see no reference in all of this to PESTICIDES, those poisons we’re constantly exposed to much of our food (unless it’s organically grown), in our air around the blueberry, potato, apple, and other large monocultures in Maine.
This is a HUGE omission; one has to almost assume it’s deliberate because the DEP perhaps doesn’t want to annoy the Ag. Dept? Or because UMO and its offshoots promote pesticides? Or………?
Why are pesticides – including fungicides, miticides, insecticides, herbicides (such as RoundUp, not “safe” as some like to claim) – not mentioned at all?
I don’t even see their chemical names here.
No Pesticides is ever safe, and it’s against federal law to claim any of them are safe, ever.
We have people dying from pesticide exposure, fetuses in their mothers’ wombs being exposed to pesticides from her blood and then beiong born with nascent cancers, asthma, allergies, and other problems right from day one of their lives.
I’m disgusted with this list.
People: don’t use those chemical scent thingies or dryer sheets – do you know what chemicals you are then breathing most of the time? And what they’re doing to your body and your brain?
Don’t risk you or your child’s brain and health…..grow some of your own vegetables if you possibly can (get an old wooden box or other containers and start growing at least good salad greens to start). This will become more important as time goes on and food shortages around this country and the world continue to expand.
We are not immune to problems facing others; most of our food still comes from away. Let’s change that; grow your own or get together with neighbors and have a community garden.
Other than clean water and warm shelter in winter, nothing else is more important than clean, un-poisoned, healthy food.
well Lepage…. BPA is on that list.. now would you look at that… hmmm I thought you said it just made women hairy….
Maine needs to sue these corporations that sells these products to Maine children.