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April 16, 2007

Feminized Fish, Boys with Breasts, and Mitt Romney

Those who think it doesn't really matter who sits in the Oval Office would do well to read this. The article is talking about the feminization of fish and enlarged breasts in young boys – and why those two things may well both be the result of chemicals found in detergents, cosmetics and other products that disrupt the endocrine system. The specific endocrine disruptors are called NPEs. Researchers suspect NPEs increase the risk of testicular, breast and ovarian cancers, and may cause early puberty in girls and underdeveloped genitals in some boys. NPEs have been banned in the European Union but not in the U.S., though the National Institutes of Health is advising doctors to look to cosmetics as the potential cause if they have patients experiencing these problems.

But what does that have to do with whomever we elect to serve as the next President?

The three main manufacturers of NPEs are Huntsman Corp., Dow Chemical and Rhodia (a French company). Huntsman Corp. is a chemical company located in Salt Lake City that produces about 90 million pounds of NPEs every year. Company executives, naturally, say the chemical is safe and they intend to continue to manufacture it. Huntsman Corp. is owned by Jon M. Huntsman Sr., a Mormon who is one of the top eight donors to Mitt Romney's political action committee – having given more than $100,000 to it. Huntsman is also the father of Utah's governor and a finance co-chairman of Romney's presidential exploratory committee. There's quite a personal relationship between Huntsman and Romney, too.

Huntsman said his late father-in-law, Elder David B. Haight, who was a member of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve, grew up in Idaho with Romney's late father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney.

Romney's father and mother were family friends for half a century, Huntsman said. "They were almost like my own parents," he said, adding he was one of the earliest supporters of George Romney's brief presidential bid in 1972.

Huntsman said he and Romney became close after Romney took over the scandal-tainted 2002 Winter Games. As head of the Olympics, Huntsman said, Romney restored Utah's reputation around the world — including countries where the Huntsmans have plants.

"It meant a lot to me," Huntsman said, because until that turnaround, every time the Huntsmans made an investment overseas, the local press described Utah as the home of the Olympics scandal. "It really impacted our family's name and our family's corporation," he said.

Huntsman said he and some of his family contributed about $250,000 total to the political action committees organized on behalf of Romney before he created the political exploratory committee for a presidential race the first week of January.

Do you think a President Romney would help get rid of harmful chemicals being manufactured by someone like Huntsman? I really doubt it. You know, it kind of reminds me of the whole tobacco thing, the denials of harm and the massive political contributions to Republicans. And wouldn't you know it, Romney has a Big Tobacco connection, too. His former consulting firm had at least three contracts with Philip Morris. Later, when Romney was Governor of Massachusetts he refused to endorse efforts to ban smoking in workplaces and under his leadership, the state received an F grade in tobacco prevention and control spending in 2006 from the American Lung Association, which said the state was spending only a sixth of the amount needed and as a result, children were finding it far too easy to buy cigarettes.

I'd say his connection to Huntsman Chemical is far stronger than his connection to Philip Morris; therefore, I doubt he would be willing to do anything about NPEs. Just a little reminder of why campaign finance reporting is so important.

Posted by Becky at April 16, 2007 02:48 PM