Maybe some Congresscritters might take notice...
From the Seattle PI
In an exclusive interview with the P-I and the Living Well column, Davies released her findings from a new study that links big money -- billions -- in health-care costs to environmental toxins. The Antioch study shows environmental contaminants cause $1.6 to $2.2 billion in direct and indirect costs in the state for childhood conditions such as asthma, cancer, lead exposure, birth defects and neurobehavioral disorders. Adult conditions (asthma, heart disease, cancer and more) run up $2.8 billion to $3.5 billion.
That's a lot of money that can be trimmed from a legislative budget or health-care costs program. It represents the sort of dollars that make legislators sit up and notice.
The findings are timed to Wednesday's public hearings about "persistent bioaccumulative toxic substances," or PBTs. She hopes to catch the attention of state legislators and Department of Ecology officials attending the hearings who will be writing a draft rule on PBTs.
"This is exactly the sort of evidence we need to present to legislators as they develop new regulations for environmental toxins," said Elise Miller, director of the Institute for Children's Environmental Health based in Freeland.
..Davies' new study is based on an "environmentally attributable fraction" model that estimates proportions of each disease or disability that can conservatively be linked to exposure to environmental toxins. So Davies' numbers may even be on the low side.