What does chemical contamination cost health care?

A new national report echoes OEC’s findings on the hard costs to society of not dealing with chemical overload. Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families outlines the role of chemical contaminants in cancer, asthma, reproductive disorders, and other conditions. Authors estimate that chronic diseases due to chemical exposures are costing the nation $5 billion, at the very least, per year. Estimates of the proportion of the disease burden that can be attributed to toxic chemical exposures vary, ranging from 1% of all disease to 5% of childhood cancer, 10% of diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and neurodevelopmental deficits, and 30% of childhood asthma.

OEC’s Price of Pollution report, published in 2008, estimated a total cost of environmentally attributable disease and disability in the State of Oregon at $1.57 billion annually with a range of $1.25-2.00 billion. Our report looked not only at diseases triggered by chemical exposure, but also smog and other forms of pollution.

Both the national report and the Oregon report make it obvious that we must overhaul the way we manage chemicals. OEC is forwarding chemical policy reform at the state and federal level. Please speak up for our Oregon legislation to ban the harmful chemical bisphenol A from baby bottles, infant formula cans, and other food containers for infants and toddlers.