Dear current and future parents,

Did you know:

* 10% of women carry enough mercury from eating contaminated fish to put their future children at risk for learning and attention problems!
[Jill Stein][According to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (March 2,2001,CDC), 10% of women of reproductive age exceed the "reference dose" for methyl mercury. The reference dose is the upper limit of exposure thought to be "safe." The CDC report implies that the reference dose has a built in margin of safety, so exceeding it is not a problem, but this is false assurance. The current reference dose is not adequately protective, for a variety of reasons. For one, it's based on memory effects rather than on attention, which is the most sensitive mercury effect. In addition, the current reference dose is derived from an exposure level associated with a DOUBLING of disability, while reference doses are usually derived from exposures that are associated with NO effects (called "no effects levels" or "NOELS"). Those who are knowledgable about this - including the author of the EPA mercury report, and the researcher who did the definitive Faroe Islands research - all agree that exceeding the current mercury reference dose is very worrisome. And CDC's new data clearly shows that 10% of women are exceeding it.

* 90% of children carry detectable urinary residues of a pesticide that can harm brain development!
[Jill Stein] US EPA Memorandum, HED Preliminary Risk Assessment for the Registration Eligibility (RED) Document. Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. Washington, DC, 10/18/99, p. 4. A more readily available document shows that 80% of adults carry this same substance in their urine. (Hill RH, Head SL, Baker, S et al. Pesticide residues in urine of adults living in the US: Environ Res 71:99-108, 1995.) It's not surprising for kids to carry more of it, since they are likely to be more exposed both to pesticides in food - since they eat more per pound of body weight - and live closer to the ground and put hands in their mouths - which leads to higher ingestion of pesticides used in the home and community.

Using pesticide flea treatment products on pets can expose a young child to as much as 500 times the safe exposure limit for a neurotoxic pesticide!
[Jill Stein] David Wallinga. NRDC. Poisons on Pets. (On the NRDC website.)

More than 99% of commercial chemicals have NOT BEEN TESTED according to EPA standards for their effects on brain development.
[Jill Stein] Of 80,000 chemicals registered for commercial use, only 12 chemicals have tested according to EPA's standard for assessing chemical effects on the developing brain, the so-called developmental neurotoxicity test, or DNT. Makris S, Raffaele K et al. A retrospective analysis of 12 developmental neurotoxicity studies submitted to the US EPA Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. draft, 11/12/98.