BANGOR – Rather than being allowed to use consumers as guinea pigs, manufacturers should be made responsible for proving the environmental safety of the chemicals they use and produce, said a group of local environmental and health advocates Monday.

The Bangor event was one of dozens held simultaneously around the country to mark the beginning of a national Be Safe campaign to make manufacturing laws more consumer-oriented.

Speaking to a small gathering of reporters at the Maine Discovery Museum, representatives of the Environmental Health Strategy Center, the Maine People’s Alliance, the Toxics Action Center, the Learning Disabilities Association of Maine and other groups said the burden of proving safety should not rest on the public.

Molly Saunders of the Androscoggin Lake Association in Wayne said studies have demonstrated the presence of low levels of dioxin, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls in the lake – a “toxic brew” received from paper mills and sewage treatment plants on the Androscoggin River when it floods.

Other studies funded by small grants from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund have determined that eggs from the nests of eagles and loons near the lake have failed to hatch. A study of the potential link between the chemical contamination and specific risks to birds, humans and other species is beyond the group’s reach, though.

“We shouldn’t be forced to prove these discharges are harmful,” Saunders said. “Industry should be forced to prove they’re harmless.”

In another example, Be Safe points to a recent study from the University of Texas showing that American women have high levels of chemical flame retardants called polybrominated diphenyl ethers in their breast milk. PBDEs are used in the manufacture of hundreds of everyday household products, including children’s sleepwear, furniture, computers, televisions and automobiles.

According to Michael Belliveau, executive director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center based in Bangor, PBDEs in American mothers were as much as 100 times higher than in a similar sample of European women and have no connection to workplace exposure. The material is not chemically bound in the materials it’s used in, he said, and escapes readily through contact and use.

“We’re feeding flame retardant to our babies,” he said. “This is not right. It is unjust. It’s chemical trespass.”

Kent Jenkins Jr., spokesman for Great Lakes Chemical Corp. in West Lafayette, Ind., said the industry is well aware of concerns about flame retardants accumulating in breast milk. Great Lakes is one of the leading manufacturers of the chemical. At this point, he said, there’s no evidence that it poses a health threat, whereas PBDEs are “clearly and demonstrably saving lives.”

“It would be a gravely mistaken policy to not use a product that is saving lives because of a theoretical issue that is being closely monitored,” Jenkins said. Great Lakes and other companies are funding research into the safety of the product, he said, noting that health groups continue to recommend breastfeeding.

Kent also said that the state of California has passed legislation to prohibit by 2008 the sale of furniture containing PBDE. The time frame will allow “an orderly transition to flame retardants that work effectively” without posing the public concerns associated with PBDEs, he said.

The Be Safe campaign is being promoted on the national level by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice in Falls Church, Va. Executive director Lois Gibbs said in a phone interview Monday that most people assume manufacturing substances are tested for their environmental safety and effect on human health, but in many cases they are not.

Tests that do measure the effects of certain chemicals on humans use adult subjects, said Gibbs. “Certainly, they’re not tested for safety in children,” she said.

Gibbs acknowledged that current manufacturing laws and regulations fail to protect against injury, effectively allowing consumers to assume unknown risks. Even when dangerous levels of risk are established, she said, manufacturers often fail to take action.

Using a simple analogy, Gibbs said most adults would automatically acknowledge the risk to a toddler from falling down a flight of stairs and act to prevent that harm by putting a gate across the stairway.

Industry, she said, prefers to study how many children fall down the stairs and how badly they get hurt. If enough children are sufficiently injured, she said, “they still don’t want to put the gate up. They’d rather put a pillow at the bottom of the stairs.”

More information about the Be Safe campaign is available online at www.besafenet.com.