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Editor’s note: Dr. David O. Carpenter was featured on the “RFK Jr. The Defender Podcast” to discuss the effects of toxic chemicals on animals and humans. Part one of the podcast, about the effects of neonicotinoids on insects, can be found here. Below is part two, about the effects of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and phthalates on children’s health and development.
Dr. David O. Carpenter delivered an alarming message to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the “RFK Jr. The Defender Podcast” — Not only are toxic chemicals all around us, but “there is growing evidence that the adverse effects of PCBs on learning and memory are not reversible.”
Carpenter explained that neurotoxicological chemicals such as PCBs can have an impact on IQ and behavior in children and adults, and that endocrine disruptors such as phthalates can affect sexual development.
Chemical giant Monsanto produced most of the PCBs in the U.S. from the late 1920s until 1979, when the Toxic Substances Control Act banned their manufacture.
In the 1970s, when Monsanto knew the PCB ban was coming, the company used up its excess stock of the chemical by mixing it into window caulking, Kennedy said — and schools built in that era may have used that caulking.
“In some states, up to 30% of the schools have high astronomically high levels of PCB in the window caulking,” Kennedy said. When schoolrooms heat up, the PCBs mobilize and spread through the air.
In Washington State, students, faculty and parents contend Monsanto is responsible for PCB contamination at the Sky Valley Educational Center in the Monroe School District. In a lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged PCBs in window caulk and light fixtures caused neurological injuries.
Old fluorescent light bulbs are another source of PCBs, said Carpenter, because PCBs were used in their ballasts until the 1980s. In New York City, he said, some 600 schools until recently had these old lights because the schools couldn’t afford to replace them.
“PCBs are as bad as lead in causing reductions in IQ,” said Carpenter.
“We’ve had a lot of knowledge about lead, and a lot of remediation of lead,” Carpenter said. “But the problem with remediating PCB contamination is it’s so expensive. And therefore, a lot of people, including our government, have been sticking their heads in the sand and have not been willing to identify the problem.”
Carpenter is also concerned about the ubiquitousness of phthalates and their effects on sexual development, he told Kennedy. We are all exposed to phthalates every day — in everything from hair products to plastic containers, he said.
Phthalates act as estrogen receptor agonists. A pregnant woman’s exposure to them can affect sex hormones and possibly sexual function in her unborn child.
“It’s the fault of those of us that are adults that have allowed these chemicals to get on the market, to interfere with the development of children before they’re even born,” said Carpenter.
Watch the podcast here:
