Sunday, April 7, 2013

Lead Us Break Bread


     The Huffington Post reports some lead-based debauchery happening overseas and the United States is to blame.  This report shows that, although toxic-laden chemicals are banned for purchase in the United States, it does not stop the U.S. from producing these chemicals and shipping them overseas to countries that have lighter restrictions on those particular chemicals.  Perry Gottesfeld and his team, while in Cameroon, discovered that more than forty percent of Seigneurie house paints (manufactured in the U.S.) in the Cameroon market contained high levels of lead.  The article also states that no laws are in place in the U.S. to restrict these toxic shipments, and these lead-based poisons are ending up in developing areas for use in schools, daycare, and homes.  Lead is not the only regulated toxin that is finding its way out of U.S. borders: asbestos and pesticides are also leading culprits in the poison problem. 
          Nothing says “I love you” more than a nice bucket of toxic paint slapped right on the walls where little tykes will play.  I think our country is living in a protective bubble, where we believe that if it is so here, it is so everywhere.  Sadly, this is not the case.  Corporations are yet again finding ways to make a profit for less and they do so by exploiting developing nations that do not know, or cannot afford, to avoid these toxins.  When will corporations stop exploiting the system? I feel so disgusted by the very fact that I live from check to check while some CEO is making millions off exported poison.  

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