Chemical exposures cost California an estimated $2.6 billion, research shows

[Guest guest]

As taken from a posting on the Occ-Env-Med-L chatboard.

Sharon

EXCERPT: “ " This report, for the first time, puts cost estimates on the

consequences for Californians of current chemical and product management

policies, " said COEH director Dr. Balmes, a professor of environmental

health

sciences at UC Berkeley and a professor of medicine at UCSF. " California has

shown that creating new jobs and investment opportunities can go hand in hand

with protecting human health and the environment. We have been doing this with

vehicle emissions and energy use, and this new report makes it obvious that

we will need to do the same with chemicals and products. "

Copy of the report, released today, at:

_http://www.coeh.ucla.edu/greenchemistry.pdf_

(http://www.coeh.ucla.edu/greenchemistry.pdf)

News coverage, and press release, attached

-- Submitted by Wallinga, MD

--------------------------------------------------

UCLA Newsroom

_http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/chemical-exposures-cost-california-4

3152.aspx_

(http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/chemical-exposures-cost-california-431\

52.aspx)

Chemical exposures cost California an estimated $2.6 billion, research

shows

Policy report endorsed by 127 University of California faculty members

By

Phil Hampton and Yang

| 1/17/2008

Existing state laws regulating the production and use of hazardous chemicals

have serious gaps and fail to protect public health and the environment,

according to a new report released today by researchers at UCLA and the

University of California, Berkeley.

As a result of this inadequate oversight, chemical- and pollution-related

diseases among children and workers in California cost the state's insurers,

businesses and families an estimated $2.6 billion in direct and indirect costs,

says the report, which includes a set of recommended policy reforms for the

state.

In 2004, more than 200,000 California workers were diagnosed with deadly,

chronic diseases, such as cancer and emphysema, attributable to chemical

exposures in the workplace, according to the report. Another 4,400 died as a

result

of those diseases. The new findings, based on well-established methodology

for analyzing economic impact, indicate that those diseases resulted in $1.4

billion in both direct medical costs and indirect costs that include lost

wages and benefits.

An additional $1.2 billion in direct and indirect costs is attributed to

240,000 cases of preventable childhood diseases related to environmental

exposure to chemical substances, the report says.....

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