Is It a Toxic World for Kids After All?
The promise of “better living through chemistry” is one side of a double-edged sword. Tonight’s “Now With Bill Moyers” focuses on the other side: a growing body of research that points to toxins in the environment as a cause of childhood illness.
The hourlong report, “Kids and Chemicals” (8 p.m. KVCR, 9 p.m. KCET), examines what children eat, breathe, drink and play with, and establishes an apparent link to a range of problems, from asthma to cancer to behavioral and learning disorders. Along the way, the show also explores institutional resistance to eliminating known hazards such as lead. A case in point: the small town of Herculaneum, Mo., where the nation’s largest lead smelter finally agreed in March to offer buyouts to 160 homeowners because of contamination.
Most disturbing of all, though, is how much scientists don’t know. Dr. Phil Landrigan of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City says that of the 3,000 high-production-volume chemicals in use in the U.S., only 43% have been “minimally tested; only 10% have been thoroughly tested to examine their potential effects on children’s health and development.”
These and other statistics cited in the program add up to a big mystery, one that the experts interviewed for the report say they are only beginning to solve. Moyers and his team profile several projects, ranging from the investigation of a cluster of child cancer cases in Fallon, Nev., to research into the chemicals that expectant mothers encounter in their daily lives in New York. In nearly each case, the data are just coming in and it’s too soon to draw conclusions.
After a while, this lack of resolution is a bit frustrating. In addition, you might yearn for some concrete tips on how to protect the children in your life. But the sad fact is that there are few clear answers. Rather than wrap things up in a tidy package, “Now With Bill Moyers” is smart enough to admit this.
