Slow Death by Big Business

In Slow Death by Rubber Duck the authors test changes in chemical levels in their blood as a result of using certain toxic items. The outcome was frightening: both authors saw two- to seven-fold increases due to using everyday household products in high concentration. What is equally frightening is how hard it has been, and continues to be, to get these products banned from use. With each chemical, a common pattern emerges: numerous studies and real-world cases come out that illustrate the toxicity of the chemical, only for the various lobbyists representing the chemical and manufactoring companies to fight back and maintain the status quo. Even if a chemical does manage to get banned, the companies simply tweak the formula, and replace it with a very similar compound with equally adverse effects, causing the whole cycle to run again.

As horrible as it is to see these chemicals stay in the products that we use everyday and toxify our bodies, unfortunately this is only one symptom of a bigger problem. We have let the government become dominated by Big Business to the point that individual citizens no longer have the control to remove substances that pollute us and negatively impact our health. What's more, the onus is on scientists to prove that a substances causes serious harm beyond any doubt before a chemical is banned. There is no responsibility on the part of the companies that use and manufacture these chemicals to prove that they are safe before they enter the marketplace and pollute our lives.

Unfortunately for the people of the world, this is only one example of how the demands of Big Business control our legislative process. For all the flack they take, even Big Pharma isn't this bad: at least they have to run tests (however flawed) to prove that their new drugs work and meet certain safety thresholds before they are approved by the government. This problem is not limited to toxic chemicals, environmental issues, or even prescription drugs. It is lurking behind every backroom deal between the government of some country and a large multinational corporation. It has reached a point where the rights of companies are greater than the rights of individuals, and the penalties when companies are rarely held accountable for their misdeeds are laughable in comparison to the penalties faced for civilian offenders. What has to happen before we wake up and demand change? Is it even possible to effect change when faced by the Goliath of Big Business lobbyists and their infinite bank accounts?

To bring this piece back to the topic in Slow Death, the second-last chapter demonstrates that perhaps the tide is turning. The chapter outlines the process that ultimately led to the banning of bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles in Ontario, and eventually Canada. What makes this example truly promising is that unlike so many toxic chemicals of the past, BPA was banned before there was an outbreak of dying or severely ill people that could definitively be traced back to the chemical in question. Finally the government had decided that it was "better to be safe than sorry."* Although this only banned BPA from baby bottles, the ensuing press frenzy resulted in certain retailers, such as Mountain Equipment Coop, to preemptively remove all products containing BPA from their shelves. As of today, consumer demand drives companies to produce BPA-free products.

While it is unfortunate that BPA has lasted in the marketplace (and thus the environment) as long as it has, at least it is slowly being weeded out without having to first witness an episode like Minamata. Hopefully, this will symbolize a movement towards a more balanced relationship between the rights of people and the rights of corporations in today's democratic governments. The result will be a political environment conducive to banning the use of toxic chemicals, to forcing companies to prove the safety of new products before they are put into our environment, and to putting the needs and health of people above the profit of corporations. Only once this paradigm shift occurs will we truly be able to break the cycle and eliminate the life-threatening problems so succinctly demonstrated in Slow Death. At the very least, if the toxic side-effects of these products are allowed to run their course, companies will have no one left to sell their products to.

*Excerpt from Health Minister Tony Clement's press conference announcing the ban of BPA in baby bottles.