Reproductive Rights and Environmental Justice

“Who would want to live in a world which is just not quite fatal?”

- ecologist Paul Shepard, quoted by Rachel Carson in “Silent Spring,” 1962

What does environmental justice have to do with reproductive freedom? Well, of course, as people, we must all care about the world in which we live. The impact that we have on the environment, and its impact on us, is all the more clear as we watch the weeks tick by as oil continues to spill into the Gulf of Mexico and onto the shores of our southern coastline. 

Aside from this basic connection that we all have with the planet, reproductive rights advocates and environmental activists share a common belief that when armed with knowledge we can make choices to keep ourselves healthy. Reproductive health stems in part from the health of the environment in which we live, what we ingest, and what we pass on to our children. Nutrients as well as toxic substances pass from pregnant mother to unborn child and through breast milk to infants. The health of the external environment directly impacts our internal health, of which reproductive health is an important piece. Many specific issues therefore make the two coalitions natural allies.

Take toxic substances for instance. Rachel Carson, a Pennsylvania native, warned of the dangers of pesticides as early as 1962. Her work spurred modern environmental activism and the creation of the EPA in 1970. In 1976, Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in an attempt to give the EPA the power to regulate chemicals used in consumer products and manufacturing facilities.

Since 1976, EPA has evaluated 200 of the now 82,000 registered chemicals and banned 5 since 1976 and none since 1990. The 2008-2009 President’s Cancer Panel Report focused solely on the environmental cancer risk. The Panel called TSCA the “most egregious example of ineffective regulation on environmental contaminants” and stated that rates of environmentally induced cancers are “grossly underestimated.” Since 1982, 40% more women have reported impaired fertility and 30% more babies have been born prematurely since 1994. While environmental contaminants are not the sole cause of these rising rates, there are strong links between human health and chemical exposure.

With a push from Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, a coalition of individuals, businesses, health professionals, reproductive health advocates, and environmentalists concerned with the safety of toxic chemicals in consumer products, our homes, and workplaces, Congress is now attempting to revamp TSCA with bills introduced in both the House and Senate. The “Safe Chemical Act of 2010” would require fast action on the worst chemicals, publication of basic information on all chemicals, and a focus on communities disproportionately affected by harmful chemicals (people living near manufacturing sites, workers, pregnant women).

Although the bill is a promising start, Lindsay Dahl (Deputy Director of Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families) points out that work must still be done to make the bills stronger – especially with regard to requirements for new chemicals. New chemicals will likely still be able to get to market unless flagged, perhaps due to their similarity to chemicals already deemed harmful. More strict criteria must be laid out so that the chemical industry is required to show chemicals are safe, rather than have the EPA chase down chemicals once their harmful effects manifest.

The chemical industry is likely to fight against tackling the “worst of the worst” chemicals first for such action would put a black mark on these chemicals. Yet, if they’re the “worst of the worst,” don’t they deserve a black mark?

A revamped TSCA asks the chemical industry to tell us the health risks of the chemicals used in our insecticides, shampoos, plastics, etc. so that we armed with the knowledge to make informed choices about what we purchase. "Choice" in matters of health encompasses the range of choices from what kinds of chemicals we allow to enter our body (or not) to whether and when to have a family (or not) and numerous other decisions in between. And as new science continues to show, environmental contaminants can directly impact reproductive health – from infertility and premature births to breast and testicular cancers (Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Health Report).

Rachel Carson asked in the first installment of her “Silent Spring” series in 1962: “Have we fallen into a mesmerized state that makes us accept as inevitable that which is inferior or detrimental, as though we had lost the will or the vision to demand that which is good?” Advocates for both reproductive rights and environmental justice have always envisioned that better education and greater choices empower individuals to demand that which is good for themselves and their communities.