Here is comment, a suggestion, I added to Katrina Vanden Heuvel's excellent, "The First 100 Days -- Obama's To-Do List" --
In order to raise his own and our collective awareness of the pernicious and ubiquitous presence of toxic chemicals in our environment (not merely in our air, our water, our soil, our food, but replete in the cells of our bodies), I would invite President Obama to submit a sample of his blood to the Center for Disease Control's Biomonitoring Program, and publish the results. Perhaps, to truly "red flag" the gravity of this issue, among so many other underappreciated perils and problems we confront, he might have Michelle, Malia, and Sasha submit samples, as well. I expect, he would be seriously shocked.
Before your eyes glaze over and you slip into a Vancome Lady, "La, la, la . . . La, la, la!" moment -- "Bio-huh? This ain't on my Top Ten List!" -- get your google or wiki on.
Search terms:
biomonitoring
chemical body burden
precautionary principle
See, for example, Nena Baker's recent, "The Body Toxic; How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-being," or "Our Stolen Future," a book by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers.
In my view, the matter of "biosafety" or "biological integrity," generally (consider the profligate introduction of genetically modified organisms into our environment, as well), is as grave a threat as any (global warming, WMD proliferation, "terrorism") we face.
Thank you Katrina and The Nation!
Here's one more link: Pollution in People, by Sharon Eisenberg