Our Toxic Environment

It's a chemical world. In our water bottles, our furniture, our cosmetics and lawns and food, we are surrounded by synthetic chemicals. Since World War II, some 80,000 have been introduced. Forty-two billion pounds worth are produced or imported in the U.S. every year.

At the same time, Americans face a phalanx of disease and health challenges — from cancer to asthma to disrupted hormones — that have everyone wondering every day what's safe to breathe, to touch, to eat. Europe is stricter. The U.S. — wide open.

This hour, On Point: chemical threats, and the call for a new "green chemistry."Guests:

John Warner, president and chief technology officer, Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry.

John Peterson Myers, founder, CEO and chief scientist of Environmental Health Sciences and co-author of "Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival?".