The day after Thanksgiving I went for a walk with a friend. When we were passing by one home you could smell the sweet odor of dryer sheets.
I looked at my friend and said “Did you know dryer sheets emit benzene into the air?” She looked at me (puzzled) and thought for a minute and replied, “I suppose that means you don’t use dryer sheets then?” And my answer was, “Yes, I don’t use dryer sheets.”
Will it change my friends buying habits? Who knows, but at least I put the idea out there.
I know there are a lot of other chemicals involved with air quality associated with the use of dryer sheets but benzene was the only one I could remember – but then to ALEC, I’m an ignorant average citizen unable to evaluate the reliability of “junk science”.
A little background on Dryer Sheets and ALEC "Junk Science"
Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP)
Air pollutants which are not covered by ambient air quality standards but which, as defined in the Clean Air Act, may present a threat of adverse human health effects or adverse environmental effects. Such pollutants include asbestos, beryllium, mercury, benzene, coke oven emissions, radionuclides, and vinyl chloride. (EPA’s Regulatory Train Wreck: Strategies for State Legislators; 2011 American Legislative Exchange Council p.53)
A study published in Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health, 2011 noted that
Common laundry products, used in washing and drying machines, can contribute to outdoor emissions through dryer vents. However, the types and amounts of chemicals emitted are largely unknown. To investigate these emissions, we analyzed the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) both in the headspace of fragranced laundry products and in the air emitted from dryer vents during use of these products. In a controlled study of washing and drying laundry, we sampled emissions from two residential dryer vents during the use of no products, fragranced detergent, and fragranced detergent plus fragranced dryer sheet. Our analyses found more than 25 VOCs emitted from dryer vents, with highest concentrations of acetaldehyde, acetone, and ethanol. Seven of these VOCs are classified as hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), and two as carcinogenic HAPs (acetaldehyde and benzene) with no safe exposure level, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
This study, the first to characterize dryer vent emissions during the use of fragranced laundry products, found that many chemicals are emitted from dryer vents, including some classified as hazardous (EPA 2010). Furthermore, in the case of acetaldehyde, such emissions potentially represent a non-trivial contribution to overall concentrations in populated areas.
This study even made the MSM – but you probably missed it:
For the study - published in the August issue of Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - researchers enlisted two homeowners to volunteer their washers and dryers, which the team scrubbed clean beforehand. The researchers ran a regular laundry cycle for three scenarios in each home: once without any detergent, once with a scented liquid laundry detergent, and the last with both scented detergent and a leading brand of scented dryer sheets.
Their analysis found more than 25 "volatile" air pollutants - including the carcinogens acetaldehyde and benzene.
Benzene causes leukemia and other blood cancers, according to the American Cancer Society. Acetaldehyde has been shown to cause nasal and throat cancer in animal studies.
This is the type of study that the American Legislative Exchange Council would probably refer to as “junk science” – the phrase they use to discredit any scientific data about climate change, phenols or mold or almost anything that will harm the profits of the corporate sector / private enterprise members. (an aside – the Cato Institute, a good friend of ALEC has a website www.junkscience.com at least it’s not a .org webpage.
IN 2000, ALEC released a report to their members entitled “Environmental Health Survey: Is Junk Science Guiding Today’s Policy?”
In 2001, ALEC created the Environmental Health Initiative
The goal of the Environmental Health Initiativeto ensure that state legislators have the tools they need to properly evaluate the reliability and credibility of scientific testimony presented during legislative sessions. The project will create a national network of legislators who can take the lead in their states in determining whether a proposed policy initiative is based on sound scientific concerns or is fueled by advocacy-based junk science.
In 2003, ALEC introduced the
Common Sense Scientific and Technical Evidence Act is designed to ensure that state courts follow the same guidelines in admitting expert opinions about scientific and technical matters as judges in the federal courts.
In the 2003 edition of ALEC’s “Disorder in the Court” they suggest that judges should make the final decision regarding “expert opinion” with their argument being:
The expert witness is not on the stand to testify simply to facts that he or she observed; the very reason for admitting expert testimony is because the subject matter is outside the ken of the average juror. If the testimony is beyond the ken of the average juror, one cannot reasonably expect that juror to evaluate its reliability.
I wonder who ALEC would consider as a REAL “expert opinion” - only those from Koch funded thinktanks? And being that there are a lot of ALEC alumni as sitting judges – judges making sole decisions on issues would seem spurious to me.
In 2011, Scott Walker became the poster child of ALEC when on the first day he was in office he passed SB1, which ALEC lauded in a March 2011 edition of Inside ALEC with an article entitled “ALEC Commends Gov. Walker for Decreasing Burdens on Businesses” where ALEC noted:
ALEC is deeply committed to the advancement of substantive civil justice reform in the states and supports this legislation, which includes numerous provisions that reflect the policy and model legislation of the ALEC Civil Justice Task Force. Among other things, SB 1 will keep junk science from tampering with justice, will strengthen the standards for filing products liability cases against manufacturers, and will discourage inflated punitive damages awards where unwarranted. The legislation brings together numerous such reforms with one overarching goal: providing predictability and fairness in the legal system in order to pave the way for job creation in Wisconsin.
Junk Science – the nemesis of ALEC corporate sector / private enterprise members and their undaunted goal to profits – not job creation. Maybe ALEC came up with the phrase “job creators” when they were indoctrinating legislative members – we will probably never know.
ALEC and Clean Air
For decades the American Legislative Exchange Council has not been concerned with the air that you and I breathe – the most important thing for ALEC is to maintain the profits of their corporate sector / private enterprise members – as the “free market” dictates.
In 1993 ALEC released a report to their state legislative members from the ALEC annual meeting where TEXACO educated state legislators about clean air.
"Democracy & The Clean Air Act: Why State Legislators Must Take A Role” (November 1991,8 pgs.) by Mr. Jamer- W. Kinnear, President and Chief Executive Officer of Texaco Inc. Mr. James Kinnear's remarks atALECs 18th Annual Meeting discussed the role of state legislators in implementing the Clean Air Amendments.
The 1995 American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Sourcebook of “model legislation” included the Pollution Prevention Act which, of course, established a private – public advisory committee that could / would circumvent the Clean Air Act at the state level.
Section 10. Departmental advisory committee.]
(A) Establishment of committee. In order to assist in establishing roles related to toxics use and release reduction and hazardous waste reduction, the department shall establish an advisory committee. The advisory committee shall consist of representatives of the public and affected industries. (B) Purview of committee. (1) The advisory committee shall act in an advisory capacity to the department in any manner related to toxics use and release reduction and hazardous waste reduction. The advisory committee may provide comments regarding data collection, plan format, and content. In addition, the committee shall identify any additional data necessary to improve the technical assistance process, to develop plans and to aid in enforcement of plans. (2) The committee shall make recommendations to the department to increase the coordination of requirements of all state and federal toxics use and hazardous waste programs, including but not limited to the federal Clean Air Act,
Well, I wonder how well that advisory committee would work in a state like Wisconsin or Ohio with ALEC Alumni at the helm – and massive ALEC membership in the state legislature. States that continually use the ALEC mantra “We’re open for business.”
Moving forward in time, the American Legislative Exchange Council has a 2007 resolution against “CLEAN AIR”
Therefore, be it resolved that because of the aforementioned lack of evidence that human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases will “endanger public health or welfare” as required by §202 of the Clean Air Act, the American Legislative Exchange Council urges EPA to not make an endangerment finding under § 202 of the Clean Air Act and regulate greenhouse gases from mobile sources.
Be it further resolved that that until and unless Congress enacts new statutory language clarifying and specifying EPA’s legal and regulatory obligations with respect to carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act, EPA should refrain from further deliberations on a possible endangerment finding regarding carbon dioxide regulation under § 202 of the Clean Air
That's only an excerpt of course.
In a 2010 ALEC wrote a letter to Harry Reid ALEC stating their “alarm” about the clean air act
The American Legislative Exchange Council is alarmed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s plan to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act (CAA). We are encouraged by efforts such as the bipartisan resolution S.J. Res. 26 introduced by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Senator Blanche Lincoln (D Ark.) to prevent the EPA from this action.
Allowing EPA to proceed with this regulatory approach in the absence of the people’s
directive through their elected members of Congress is tantamount to allowing unelected bureaucrats to determine the legislative agenda. Congress must not allow the EPA to dictate its priorities, and S. J. Res. 26 will ensure that the EPA's rule will not destroy our economic recovery and the jobs that depend on it.
ALEC lecturing Harry Reid that the process "is tantamount to allowing unelected bureaucrats to determine the legislative agenda" - Woo-hoo, isn't that how ALEC gets everything done, with a private-public agenda allowing unelected bureacrats to determine legislative agendas?
In the EPA’s Regulatory Train Wreck: Strategies for State Legislators (2011) there is a section named "Regulatory Creep" which specifically points out why ALEC is so vehemently opposed to regulatory control.
One major threat to state implementation plans and private sector investment is the risk that EPA expands these rules. … Even with alleged limits to EPA authority via the questionably-legal Tailoring Rule, there is a high likelihood of EPA expanding various regulatory programs to new sectors, sources, and technologies.
Yeh – expansion to new sectors, sources and technologies – such as Dryer Sheets.
ALEC's focus has never been on clean air for you and me - their focus is on corporate profit for their corporate sector / private enterprise members.
They use our state and federal legislators to expand corporate profit by establishing government that is by and for the ALEC corporations.
Downy dryer sheets – made by Proctor and Gamble
Gain dryer sheets – made by Proctor and Gamble
Bounce dryer sheets – made by Proctor and Gamble
Snuggle dryer sheets – made by Sun Products
Procter & Gamble, member of ALEC Private Enterprise Board as of 2009
Sun Products was formed in September 2008 from the combination of Unilever’s North American fabric care business and Huish Detergents, Inc, a leading manufacturer of private label laundry and dish products. (Unilever - State corporate co-chair of Maryland)
Resist ALEC - November 30 - Phoenix / Scottsdale
