You probably will not believe it, but it does. You see, U.S. environmental standards are lower than China's environmental standards, and the U.S. has become a chemical dumping ground thanks to the work of industry lobbyists who have done everything in their power to squish the prospect of regulation.
Asbestos is still legal in the United States, and 30 million pounds of it is sold annually. In fact, no toxic chemical has been banned in the United States since 1991. Even countries like Mexico have proposed banning the carcinogenic chemical, lindane. In the past, Mexico has been used as a chemical dumping ground, but now it is taking the lead in banning carcinogentic chemicals. Under the Bush administration, Chemistry Industry lobbyists had their way and the U.S. went in the opposite directions.
The European Union and China have taken steps to remove carcinogenic chemicals from everything from toys to food. The results? Sales of toys are up, and now the E.U. puts warning labels on genetically engineered food. The U.S. economy, on the other hand, is falling behind. U.S. corn farmers, for example, used to ship from 3.15 million tons of corn to Europe. Now that most U.S. corn is genetically modified, thanks to Monsanto, the U.S. now exports 37,000 metric tons, which as Mark Schaprio points out is "barely enough to fill a single shipload." The U.S. is losing its economic edge because the U.S. chemical industry has refused to meet European environmental standards.
Because of the U.S. chemical industry pay their powerful lobbyists two to five million dollars a year to lobby Washington, and now Brussells, the U.S. is falling behind in the new green market. China will not buy U.S. cars because they do not meet Chinese fuel standards. Europeans will not buy U.S. comsetics because they contain suspected carcinogens. The Europeans know that these toxins form a toxic soup in the human blood stream. Even Bill Moyers discovered that he has 83 synthetic chemicals in his blood. Europeans found toxic chemicals in children's toys and food, and so they banned them. The United States lobbyists decided that these bans were unneccesary, and contantly fight to prevent E.U. style regulations from taking shape in America. This is why America has become a chemical dumping ground.
This is why it did not suprise me that CNN Healine news reports that toxic Chinese drywall was found in the U.S., and reported that the China's defense was that the drywall, "met U.S. standards". And they were not lying. If the U.S. had the same environmental standards as Europe, that drywall would have not made it into the country. Ironically, China would not sell the drywall they sold to us to its own citizens, and yet because the U.S. chemical market is unregulated, the toxic drywall made it to our shores. The toxic drywall met U.S. standards, so the Chinese sent it over.
Read Mark Shapiro's book Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products And What's At Stake for American Power for more information on the American chemical industry's efforts to maintain the status quo while making America less innovative when it comes to producing green technology and making us less competitive in the world market.