Time and "Household Toxins"

By ACSH Staff — Apr 07, 2010
Time compiled profiles of what they call the Top 10 Common Household Toxins, with the dire warning, Chemicals in plastics and other products seem harmless, but mounting evidence links them to health problems -- and Washington lacks the power to protect us.

Time compiled profiles of what they call the Top 10 Common Household Toxins, with the dire warning, Chemicals in plastics and other products seem harmless, but mounting evidence links them to health problems -- and Washington lacks the power to protect us.

Time leaves the realm of science altogether to try and scare the pants off of you, says Dr. Ross. They go to people with impressive-sounding credentials whose entire career has been devoted to spreading rumors about environmental chemicals. It s all about selling magazines.

This is just classic junk science, says Dr. Whelan. They re relying on animal studies and not looking at the whole picture. They ignore the fact that these chemicals have been in use for over forty or fifty years without any evidence of risk. It s awful that they did this to scare people about the perils of plastic, but the Harvard School of Public Health s publication did the same thing a few months ago with their story How Dangerous Are Plastics?