Alan Bell's Blog, page 3
October 4, 2019
Alan Speaks at the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology
Alan Speaks at the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology
April 3, 2019
ALAN FEATURED ON VOICE AMERICA RADIO TALK SHOW
Alan featured talk show guest on Voice America Radio
Episode Description
Environmental Health is a new civil rights issue because it so often violates the rights of low-income people – often people of color—more than the rights of any other population.” —Alan Bell. Alan Bell was poisoned by a sick building. It took years for him to realize what caused the damage to his body, and why there was no government regulations in place to protect people from chemicals. After finally finding a diagnosis, and becoming well enough to leave his home, he began advocating for other in similar situations. Teaming up with other top lawyers—including those portrayed in the films Erin Brockovich—he has helped other victims of environmental toxins. His book “Poisoned: How a Crime-Busting Prosecutor Turned His Medical Mystery Into a Crusade For Environmental Victims,” tells his story, and explains why we aren’t being protected from these chemicals.
https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/...
January 1, 2019
American Bar Association
Alan’s Story is Featured on the Cover of The American Bar Association Journal reaching 425,000 Lawyers, Judges, Congressmen, Fortune 500 CEOs and International Thought Leaders
Click Here to read:
July 11, 2018
WHY THE EPA’s DIRECTION IS BAD FOR AMERICA
Appointing Scott Pruitt director of the Environmental Protection Agency has been a move in the wrong direction for our country. I’m a right-leaning, conservative former organized crime prosecutor—the most unlikely face to oppose the EPA’s direction.
I found out the hard way that our environment’s impact on human health has become a silent epidemic of the Twenty-First Century. After years of prosecuting hardcore criminals, I began to experience bizarre medical symptoms. Doctors suspected I’d been poisoned by the Mafia. The actual culprit was far more insidious. We discovered I wasn’t poisoned by a criminal, but by my office building.
My personal experience led me to discover that more people die from toxic exposure than all those affected by AIDS, war, and crime combined. I was shocked to discover that 75 million Americans become ill each year because of indoor air pollution (NIH) . 7 of every 10 cases of cancer are caused by environmental exposure (NIEHS), and, the health of over 90% of our world’s population is adversely affected by air pollution, creating a global emergency (WHO).
No one is immune to environmentally-linked disease, regardless of religion, income or ethnicity. We breathe the same air, drink the same water, eat the same food and are equally at risk in our own homes, schools, workplaces and neighborhoods.
Most Americans trust our government to protect us from toxic environmental exposures. A mother trusts that the shampoo used on her baby’s head and on the bed she sleeps in are safe. Yet, chemicals are pouring into our environment before they are proven safe. The powerful chemical lobby is fighting against regulation because it adversely affects their profits.
Pruitt’s EPA is already finding ways to speed up the chemical review process. That means more toxic chemicals will be released into your home, school, workplace and neighborhood.
As a prosecutor, I learned to obtain criminal convictions by following the money. Here’s what my investigation revealed: Our new EPA director, Mr. Pruitt, is a self-described leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda. As Oklahoma’s Attorney General from 2011 through 2016, he repeatedly sued the agency and other governmental entities over environmental rules and regulations, at times in direct cooperation with fossil fuel companies. Nearly half of the contributions given to a federal political action committee closely tied to Mr. Pruitt’s Attorney General campaign came from the energy industry, according to Federal Election Commission documents. And, after winning his election, Pruitt dissolved the Environmental Protection Unit in his Attorney General’s office. He’s now the fox in charge of guarding the EPA chicken coop.
Such a man in charge of our country’s policy is especially dangerous because of the way he plans to approve chemicals and push them into the marketplace, prioritizing profits over safety.
Since 1950, over 85,000 chemicals have been introduced into our environment. Few have been tested for their toxic effects on humans. More Americans die from toxic exposure than war, crime and AIDS combined. The NIH reports that 75 million Americans become ill each year because of indoor air pollution. And, 7 of every 10 cases of cancer are caused by environmental exposure. Moreover, according to the World Health Organization, the health of over 90% of our world’s population is adversely affected by air pollution, creating a global emergency.
The backlog of industry requests to the EPA to manufacture new chemicals has doubled from 331 to 658. Thus far, the EPA has allowed only 33 new chemicals to enter commerce since the law was amended. However, under Pruitt’s leadership, the EPA is now considering how to reinterpret the requirements of Toxic Substances Control Act, amended last June. The organization’s objective is to find ways to allow more chemicals into our lives. To date, chemical manufacturers have been required under the original and amended TSCA to submit a premanufacture notice to the EPA before they make, distribute or sell a new chemical in the U.S.
What’s new in the amended law is that the EPA must review that notice and make an affirmative finding before the new chemical can enter the marketplace. An affirmative finding by the EPA could conclude that the new chemical would not pose an unreasonable risk. The EPA also could find, for example, that a possible health or ecological risk was addressed through data the would-be manufacturer provided or the agency could place restrictions on. These TSCA amendments require the EPA to determine whether a new chemical’s conditions of use may present an unreasonable risk to potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations including infants, children, women of childbearing age and workers. Under the law, the EPA’s review must consider both intended and reasonably foreseen uses of new chemicals.
Pruitt’s EPA is trying to find ways to go around that 2016 law and circumvent it’s protective mechanisms in order to increase chemical industry profits. We can’t depend on industry to self police, given their financial incentives to look the other way. We can’t depend on doctors to cure us from environmentally-linked disease because many are incurable.
Yes, we should be concerned about global warming impacting future generations, and saving the whales, birds and trees. However, we also must save ourselves. We can take the power back by contacting our Congressmen to demand new legislation require industry to test chemicals and prove their safety before they’re introduced into the marketplace; by supporting non-toxic products; and by educating ourselves about safe alternatives. Now, more than ever, we must take back our own health.
June 21, 2018
CHICAGO CONCERT
Take yourself back to the year 1967. I was a young teen participating in the Northwestern University band camp in Chicago. I was given drum lessons by Danny Seraphine. Danny was the founding drummer of a newly formed local band named: Chicago. At the time, no one imagined that band would become an international super rock group. Nor did anyone expect my life to lead me trapped inside a bubble for almost a decade. But miraculously, 51 years later, I reunite with the band during their concert in my Southern California home town. HOW SWEET!
May 13, 2018
CBS San Diego Morning Show
February 20, 2018
Alan Bell Featured Speaker at University of California in San Diego!
Alan, joined by daughter Ashlee, was recently the featured speaker at the University of California in San Diego.
Interested in having Alan speak at your event? Learn more here.
November 13, 2017
Miami: I’m headed your way — come see me speak about my book, POISONED!
I’m headed back to my hometown of Miami this week for two fantastic speaking opportunities:
Thursday, November 16th from 6:30 – 8:00 pm, I’ll be moderating a panel at the University of Miami with panelists from the School of Law, School of Architecture, School of Nursing and Health Studies and the Miller School of Medicine. The panel discussion will focus on the different aspects of environmentally linked disease from a legal, medical, and building perspective. The event takes place at the Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables Campus.
Then, on Sunday, November 19th from noon – 1 pm, I’ll be speaking and signing my book, POISONED, at the Miami Book Fair. Here are the details:
Miami Dade College – Wolfson Campus
300 N.E. 2nd Ave.
Building 3, Room 3209 (2nd Floor)
I’d love to see you at either or both of these events!
June 30, 2017
Toxic Triclosan: Banned from Handsoap but Nothing Else
“We really have abundant evidence that toxic chemicals cause diseases in children. We know that air pollution causes asthma and other respiratory diseases. We know that these chemicals cause loss in IQ shortened attention spans, and behavioral problems, all of which plays out in school and in the workplace as they get older.”
— Philip Lanrigan, M.D., Mount Sinai Medical Center, N.Y, N. Y
You could take a hundred people, pump them full of toxic chemicals, follow them for twenty years, and discover that each of them will acquire a different disease (or none at all), depending on each person’s genetic predisposition. One easy example: a husband smokes three packs a day and never becomes ill, but his wife develops lung cancer from breathing in his secondhand smoke.
There has been a lot of news surrounding Triclosan, an antimicrobial chemical, lately. When studied by the Center for Disease Control, most Americans were found to have it in their system, and it affects hormones, liver toxicity, and increases sensitivity to allergens.
It was recently banned from antibacterial hand soaps, but it still may be in other personal care products. Specifically, Colgate Total Toothpaste still includes it as an ingredient.
Toxic chemicals adversely affect human health—chemicals that we often assume to be safe, but are not.
Symptoms are triggered by exposure to toxic chemicals and we are all exposed to the same toxic chemicals. We’re surrounded by them on a daily basis in our homes, schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods.
While you can certainly ready labels on personal care products, you may need to do more research to find out if Triclosan is used in your cutting board, at a local playground, or in your bathtub. The EWG lists various locations for Triclosan here.
Most personal care products, particularly those with synthetic fragrances, contain toxic chemicals.
Read labels and avoid products that include the following:
Triclosan
DMDM hydantonin
Imidsazolidinyl urea
Methylchloroisothiazolinone
Words ending in “paraben”
Triclocarban
Triethanolamine (TEA)
June 26, 2017
Breathing Toxic Air
Swapping out coal energy for solar would prevent 52,000 premature deaths in the United States every year, according to a new analysis from Michigan Technological University.
I recently shared an article from the Daily Climate on social media about this staggering statistic. If you follow me on social media, then you see a lot of statistics that I share about our exposure to environmental toxins and air pollution:
More than 90% of our world’s population is sickened by air pollution. World Health Organization
Aside from war, crime, and accidents, all human disease and premature death is caused by the genes we are born with and the environment we are exposed to.
1 in 20 city deaths are caused by air pollution.
Since 1950, at least 70,000 new chemical compounds have been invented and dispersed into our environment. Raising Children Toxic Free
As much as 24% of global disease is caused by environmental exposures which can be averted. World Health Organization
Burning coal causes air pollution which causes tens of thousands of premature deaths. We are breathing toxic air.
Specifically, benzene, is a volatile chemical that is a product of coal and petroleum production. It’s also added to unleaded gasoline and industrial solvents, and it’s a byproduct of tobacco smoke. The compound off-gasses from building materials and also occurs naturally.
Humans typically inhale benzene in ambient air. The body absorbs it readily and sends particles to the brain, fatty tissue and, in pregnant women, across the placenta.
Exposure to high concentrations of benzene vapor can depress the central nervous system and lead to death.
Genetic and acquired susceptibility to pulmonary and cardiovascular disease is caused by environmental exposures to toxins that include exposure to chemicals and the particles produced by coal-burning power plants.
Check the quality of the air you breathe and make sure that you and your loved ones aren’t breathing toxic air at scorecard.org.
Not only would a switch to solar electricity save lives, but the value of solar would also help the United States save money.
