With a Banjo On Their Knees

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In 1992, she told her story to a Senate subcommittee hearing which Congressman Bernard Sanders and Senator Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Consumer and Environmental Affairs subcommittee, attended. Members were alarmed and ordered testing of carpet samples by Dr. Rosalind Anderson of Dedham, Massachusetts. Dr. Anderson exposed four mice to a seven-year-old sample of Lisa's carpeting. All four mice were dead within an hour. Carpeting from Montpelier High School and the Vermont State Agricultural Building have also proved toxic.

Dr. Anderson extended her test and found that, of 100 suspect samples submitted to her office in succeeding months, virtually all produced ill-health symptoms in the test mice—ranging from tremors to death. She labeled the test results "remarkable." "We are finding a product that just polishes them off one after another after another," Dr. Anderson reported. Approximately 25% of randomly selected new carpet samples also tested potentially dangerous. The toxic properties did not seem isolated to certain brands.

Although Anderson Labs have not iso lated all the offending chemicals in the test samples, one that appears in many of the carpets is a volatile organic compound called 4-PC (4-phenylcyclohexene).

Congressman Sanders has since gathered numerous reports from consumers and workers in carpet-manufacturing plants describing health problems similar to those of Linda's family. His efforts have finally resulted in formal hearings before the House of Representatives, scheduled for July. Sanders hopes the hearings will ultimately lead to further testing and EPA restrictions on dangerous chemicals.

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