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Florida Candidate Receives Text Message During Debate in Florida; Push to Ban Alcoholic Energy Drink; Exposed to Toxins in Womb; Sink Aide Fired Over Florida Debate Debacle; New LeBron Ad For Nike
Aired October 26, 2010 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Live from Studio 7 at CNN world headquarters, the big stories for Tuesday, October 26th.
Political nastiness at its worst. A woman gets attacked and stomped on by men outside a debate in Kentucky. She is with a liberal group. The men wearing Rand Paul T-shirts and stickers. What would their mothers say?
One week until elections, should we be forced to vote? That's the question with many people staying away from the polls.
And the Material Girl has a new sweet spot. We will tell you what and where in "What's Hot."
Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
Those stories and your comments right here, right now in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: All right. Let's keep it moving.
Tempers flare. With one just week until the midterm elections, a liberal activist gets stomped on before a debate in Lexington, Kentucky.
Have you seen the video? There it is. It shows several men wearing Rand Paul T-shirts ripping a wig off the woman and pushing her to the ground. Right?
One of the men stomps on her shoulder, and his foot lands on her head. The woman from moveon.org was trying to get a picture designed to embarrass Rand Paul in a TV commercial. The Paul campaign calls the incident incredibly unfortunate.
The Democratic candidate for governor of Florida gets caught breaking the rules during a televised debate. During a break in the debate which was co-sponsored by CNN, a makeup artist shows Democrat Alex Sink a text message. Now, both candidates had agreed that no notes would be allowed.
Republican candidate Rick Scott cried foul. CNN's John King says the Sink campaign later fired the aide who sent the message.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alex Sink did not want the headline and all the buzz after this debate to be she cheated on the final exam. So, pretty quickly, about an hour after the debate, her campaign released this statement: "One of my campaign advisers admitted he tried to communicate with me during one of the breaks. While he told me it was out of anger with Rick Scott's repeated distortion of the facts, it was a foolish thing to do, it violated a debate agreement, and I immediately removed him from the campaign."
It was that aide, we are told, who sent a text message to the makeup artist. The makeup artist and only the makeup artists were authorized to be on the stage. There were no communications allowed under the agreement negotiated by the two campaigns. And as you saw in that video you played, the makeup artist handed Alex Sink a cell phone, and she looked down and read that message.
This was a very contentious debate. These candidates don't like each other, they don't trust each other. They accused each other of lacking the character to be the next Florida governor. And when Alex Sink's singular central campaign message is that Rick Scott is a cheat, he was a fraud in his business, and you can't trust him to be governor, this was an embarrassing moment, so they tried to deal with it as quickly as possible.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: OK. So we are going to get to issues. The candidates discuss issue number one -- jobs. You will hear their plans to get their states hiring.
And listen up, parents. It is a rage sweeping college campuses and something you need to know about.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I took one sip of it. I immediately threw up without even a single drink. I mean, that's how powerful it was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: So, here's what we have done. We've sent a couple our interns to get this drink. The drink in question here, the drink that you should be having a conversation about with your young adults.
We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK. Just one week left on the election countdown calendar. The two candidates for governor of Florida outlined their plans for creating jobs in a debate seen live on CNN last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA GOV. CANDIDATE: We've got to reduce regulation. We've got to reduce the size of government, got to focus on the size of government. We've got to reduce taxes. My plan is to reduce tax property rates by 19 percent, and we're going to phase out the business tax.
ALEX SINK (D), FLORIDA GOV. CANDIDATE: I have a plan. My plan calls for cutting business taxes for businesses who hire more Floridians so we can stimulate our economy and get people back to work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Jobs and the economy also big issues as the U.S. Senate candidates in Kentucky squared off in their debate.
Here are some of what they had to say last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY SENATE CANDIDATE: I think jobs and the recession, but I think also how government interacts with that. I think that government competes for precious funds and that we need to be sending less money to Washington and keeping more money here in Kentucky.
When you talk to local businesses around Kentucky, they're already very concerned about the ability to get a loan, even those with good credit records. So my biggest fear right now is that the president, through all of his new regulations on the economy, is going to keep us from getting out of this recession.
JACK CONWAY (D), KENTUCKY SENATE CANDIDATE: I think job number one is jobs. And of the two candidates sitting here, I actually have a jobs plan.
I think we need to provide incentives to the private sector to create the jobs of the future. In this plan, what we would do, we would cap it at about $30 billion. We pay for it by shutting down offshore tax loopholes. Then we'd say to small-and-medium-sized businesses, if you want to create a new job, you can take 20 percent of the cost of the new job as a tax credit. Estimates are, according to Moody's, that we'd create about 750,000 jobs nationwide.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: So, here's a look at the match-ups tonight. The three candidates in the Alaska Senate race meet at a debate at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The Florida Senate candidates face off in Orlando. And the candidates for governor of South Carolina hold a debate tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
A women's conference in California tracks some political heavyweights. The gathering hosted by California first lady Maria Shriver wraps up today in Long Beach. The first lady, Michelle Obama, is among those speaking today. The candidates for governor are also taking part.
On CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," Shriver talked about what's important to women in the upcoming elections.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIA SHRIVER, FIRST LADY OF CALIFORNIA: Most of the women I've spoken to here who are Democrats and Republicans, they cross all ages. They're talking about issues and not gender.
They're not talking about voting for a woman because she's a woman. They're not talking about voting for someone because they're a Democrat or Republican. They're talking about voting for people who understands the issues that are being discussed at their kitchen table.
People come up to me and say, "What are these people's work policy issues?" "What are the policies for elder care?" "What are their policies for education?"
"I don't care if they're a man or a woman, a Democrat or Republican. I want to know that they get it. I want to know that they'll get something done. That's how I want to use my vote."
And I think political figures come to this event because they understand that women control these elections not just here in California, but across the nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: OK. Seven days until the midterm elections. Amid all of the mudslinging, nutty ads, the strategists, pundits, their talking points, you know it's kind of easy to lose sight of what elections are really about, and they are about shaping what this country is and setting a course for the future.
On this program, in these two hours, we want to get back to the basics. So we are asking you to answer for us just one simple question: What does America mean to you?
It is a segment we are calling "My America Is..." Your personal experiences from your vantage point. What does this country look like from where you are standing right now?
Here's some of what you are saying to us.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My America is, sadly, no longer a country of the people by the people and for the people. It has become corrupted by money, and it seems that, you know, the country is basically run by large corporations who pay off politicians.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My America is a country in which every citizen has the opportunity to achieve the potential of their full humanity, talents and aspirations.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HARRIS: OK. We need your help on this. If you would, send us your thoughts, and start your answer with "My America is..."
I'm on Facebook and on Twitter, @TonyHarrisCNN. You can also go to my blog page. That's CNN.com/Tony. Or my favorite, just give us a call. And the number is 877-742-5760.
We will share more of your comments right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
A potent drink has some young adults passing out at parties, so we sent our intern Richard out to buy it for us so that we could take a look at it and analyze it, what's in it.
Let me see that stuff there, Richard. What is this stuff?
We will -- Four Loko?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
HARRIS: Four Loko?
All right. We will take it apart with our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen. She's in Miami and she joins us in just a couple of minutes.
You got that?
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Central Washington University confirming now it was an alcoholic energy drink that caused nine students to get sick at an off-campus party earlier this month. We have got it right here.
The state's attorney general is now calling for a ban on the drink Four Loko. One 24-ounce can combines as much alcohol as a six pack of beer combined with the equivalent of several comes of coffee. Police say some of the students who passed out at the Washington party had blood alcohol concentrations higher than .3, which can kill you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some people were having fun, and then all of a sudden, all the girls were puking everywhere. Girls were outside, like, on their back, and people were so drunk, they didn't know what to do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It scares me. Honestly, it scares me to ever go out anywhere. I mean, like, if they drug you, you don't know what's going to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: OK. So the drink is actually sweeping college campuses nationwide. And our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joining us now to help us take it apart here and evaluate the concerns. How concerned should you be?
Hey, Elizabeth, we've got a couple of cans up here right now. And I was debating on whether or not I would take a sip of it. Maybe I'll just crack one open and give it a sniff or something.
But how concerned should we be as parents about this drink sweeping college campuses, where our kids are supposed to be learning?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, think of it this way -- this drink is 12 percent alcohol by volume. All right? That is really high, and it's 24 ounces.
So, yes, it's just one can, but it's a 24-ounce can. And so, as you said, if you do the math, there's as much alcohol in one can of this stuff as there is in an entire six pack.
With a six pack, you are downing six of them, so you kind of maybe can feel what you're doing. For this, it's just one can, they often are flavored with all these fruity flavors. You might not really know what you are doing.
So, we told the folks who make Four Loko about this story, and here is what they had to say. They said, "When consumed responsibly, our products are just as safe as any alcoholic beverage." And, Tony, they also added, hey, "We didn't invent the concept of caffeine plus alcohol. Think about rum and Cokes" -- Tony.
HARRIS: Yes. That doesn't buy you much room with me.
So we've got a couple of cans here. We've got the lemonade flavor, we've got the blue raspberry. You just mentioned that they come in flavors here. And we've got fruit punch as well.
You know, as I recall this story out of Washington, initially, didn't the investigators believe these young people who ended up sick had been drugged?
COHEN: Right. Well, that's how sick they were. They seemed sort of beyond drunk, and the reason for that is that when they actually did their blood alcohol analyses -- you mentioned the level -- that's five times the legal limit in the state of Washington.
So I think their instinct was, this can't just be drunk. This has to be something more than that.
HARRIS: Yes. So let me see here -- maybe I should just -- I guess I should drink it. If you are talking about it's the equivalent of a six pack -- and we don't condone drinking on the air.
COHEN: You might want to wait until your show ends.
HARRIS: Yes. Somebody want to do this?
So why is it so dangerous to mix alcohol and stimulants?
COHEN: Right. Here's the deal. Mother Nature's way of telling you have had too much to drink, or one of the ways, is that you pass out. You can't drink anymore.
But when you have all this caffeine, like several cups of coffee worth of caffeine at the same time, you're awake. You can keep drinking.
You don't pass out. And that's one of the reasons why these kids got so drunk, is they were stimulated, they were awake, they kept drinking. They would have been better off passed out.
HARRIS: Yes. It smells like beer. You know, flavored beer. But that's what it smells like.
All right, Elizabeth. Appreciate it. Thank you.
COHEN: OK. Thanks.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: We've got a question as we get to break for you, just a little teaser information for you, something we learned today. What's the name of Madonna's new chain of workout centers?
Put your thinking caps on here, if you would. A, Like a Virgin; B, Hard Candy, C, Who's That Girl, or, D, Ave Maria? Wow. Think about it for a second and rock out to Madonna in the meantime.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Let's see here. Let's get you caught up on top stories right now.
Cholera continues to ravage Haiti. The death count, 259 people so far. Actor and activist Sean Penn spoke with Anderson Cooper about containing the disease.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN PENN, ACTOR & ACTIVIST: People have got to say, here's the numbers, here's how fast the infection rate is spreading. And we have got to deal with this like these are our children, and we have to do it right now, because otherwise this is just going to be one more of those great tragedies in human history that we all will have thrown up our hands and said, oh well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Wow. That's strong. The face of Saddam Hussein's regime will be put to death. Iraq's high tribunal sentenced Tariq Aziz to hang for crimes against humanity. Aziz served as Hussein's deputy prime minister for 22 years.
Indonesia's most volatile volcano is erupting. You can see the peak of Mount Merapi clouded with smoke. This, just a day after a 7.7 earthquake rocked the nation. Thousands evacuated as the ash rained down.
We have live pictures of our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, testifying before Congress in New Jersey right now. We will tell you why when we come back.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: We saw the man just moments ago. Let's go back to that live picture here.
CNN's chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, is testifying -- he's not actually testifying yet. He will shortly.
We saw him a moment ago before the break, and he was being asked a question by someone on the committee. This is a Senate subcommittee on toxic chemicals and children's environmental health. And live pictures here going on right now.
And we will get to Sanjay Gupta's testimony and give you a bit of that later. It is being held in Newark at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. We are hoping to hear from Sanjay as soon as he leaves that session.
Again, the Senate subcommittee is right now examining how chemicals you are exposed to in daily life might be harming your children, including those still in the womb. Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is testifying. He took an in-depth look in the CNN special, "Toxic America," first broadcast in June.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Here in the womb, enveloped in darkness and warmth, a baby's life begins in earnest. It is a sacred space, pristine, insulated, more than nine months of safe refuge from the world outside.
(on camera): We imagine a baby sort of nice and safe and tucked away in the womb, impervious to all the assaults that occur on the body.
You say, not so fast?
DR. FREDERICA PERERA, PROFESSOR, COLUMBIA MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Not so fast. The placenta is doing its work as well as it can, but it is not a perfect barrier. And many chemicals do pass relatively easily across the placenta.
GUPTA (voice-over): Chemicals in here? Babies are born every day, with not one, not two, but hundreds of toxic substances. In a study by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization, an average of 232 chemicals were measured in the cord blood of 10 babies born late last year.
Now, there's no science yet that demonstrate conclusive cause and effect between these mix of toxins our children are born with and particular health problems. But many leading pediatricians believe it is precisely what we do not know that makes this so troubling.
DR. PHILIP LANDRIGAN, MOUNT SINAI CHILDREN'S ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH CENTER: Eighty percent of the common chemicals in everyday use in this country, we know almost nothing about whether or not they can damage the brains of children, the immune system, the reproductive system, the other developing organs. It's really a terrible mess we have gotten ourselves into.
GUPTA: The list of chemicals measured in cord blood is, well, long, PBDEs, flame retardants, in computers, mattresses, furniture, BPA in food cans, bottle tops, hard plastics, PFCs, water repellents, used to make nonstick products, food packaging, carpeting, furniture, phthalates, found in a wide array of products, from children's toys to cosmetics.
But how do they make their way from out here to in here? The answer may be inside this backpack. I began investigating two years ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All the air that you're breathing in will be filtered in through this device.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are adjustable straps.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, let's adjust that.
PERERA: It's not a perfect model for the lung, but it is a good indication of what's in the air that the women are breathing and what could potentially be transferred to the fetus.
GUPTA: Dr. Fredricka Perera is 12 months into a landmark study for Columbia University Center for Children's Environmental Health following hundreds of pregnant women as they navigate these city streets, measuring their exposure to toxic substances, vehicle emissions, pesticides, secondhand smoke. Each one wears a backpack with a tube that acts like a lung, sucking in the same air that they're breathing. What researchers found was stunning.
PERERA: It surprised me when we analyzed the air samples and found that 100 percent of them had detectable levels of at least one pesticide and the air pollutants that we were interested in every single one.
GUPTA: A hundred percent had pesticides, pollutants that scientists were testing for eventually making their way from mom into the womb. Now, it would be one thing if these chemicals were innocuous, but studies in both animals and humans suggest they may not be.
PERERA: These chemicals can have effects on brain development.
GUPTA: All of that forces us to examine the safety of the safe haven.
PERERA: Fifty percent of children have at least one developmental problem. We've seen relationships between the air pollutants and chromosomal abnormalities. A red flag that there has been some change that could increase risk of cancer later on.
GUPTA: None of that sounds very good.
PERERA: No, it doesn't sound good.
GUPTA: Could it be the chemicals? Well, for now, we just don't know.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Well, let's get back to the live pictures now. Live pictures of a Congressional hearing being held in Newark at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson -- that's not her -- will be testifying shortly. I need a bigger monitor.
Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is testifying shortly. Again, this is the Senate subcommittee on Toxic Chemicals and Children's Environmental Health. We are hoping to talk to Sanjay as soon as he leaves that session.
We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: I'm not going to say that because that will get us both in trouble.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We'll get in trouble.
HARRIS: All right. What's hot? We've got video from all over the place, right?
JERAS: We do, yes
HARRIS: Jacqui is helping us with what's hot.
What do you want to start with her?
JERAS: We're starting off with Bristol Palin. She is hot.
HARRIS: Is she doing well on the show?
JERAS: Well the judges have -- did you see it? The air guitar. That was the hot move. They're calling this her best performance yet.
HARRIS: Really?
JERAS: Yes.
HARRIS: So she ended up with some good scores, right?
JERAS: She stole the show last night. Yes, she had great scores. She's certainly leading the pack there. Brandy's been a big favorite.
HARRIS: Right.
JERAS: Do we have pictures of Brandy?
HARRIS: I hope so. There's a lot of controversy or something about --
JERAS: Well, you just got to check out the pants. That's all I'm saying. There you go.
HARRIS: What is that? Is that metallic?
JERAS: They're like silver Lycra something. But she did great. She's been a big favorite all along. A terrific dancer.
HARRIS: Jennifer Grey, do you know how this is going for her? Is she performing well? I think she's going to win this thing. Am I missing something? I like my guy Rick Fox but --
JERAS: Last night, not so good. The judges were not a fan of her performance last night. She has been a favorite all along, as well, but not so much --
HARRIS: All right. So you've got some pictures of an amazing rescue. Is that what you want to go to next?
JERAS: Yes. It changed on me there, I think.
(CROSSTALK)
JERAS: It's from one of our affiliate web sites but it had this video on it originally. So, there you go. A close call in Magnolia, Texas, and all of this was caught -- ooh, did you see it? All of this was caught on the dash cam. That was a car that got demolished, basically, by a train and the woman was in the car or on the tracks and a police officer got her out just in time.
HARRIS: And then moments later you get this?
JERAS: Yes. There's the crash. Very scary situation. The woman was arrested for DWI.
HARRIS: OK. There you go.
And one more piece of video that we asked folks a question, right? We asked you a question going into one of our breaks about Madonna, right? And now we've got some video and she's what's hot. Tell us why.
JERAS: She is hot because she's opening a new health club.
HARRIS: Get out of here. Well, she's in amazing shape.
JERAS: Well, she kind of yoga cool a while back, right? And she's almost more known now for being so physically fit. That's what I think when I think of -- yes, she looks fantastic. What is she, like 50?
So the question is, what's the name of her chain of workout centers? Like a Virgin, Hard Candy, Who's that Girl, Ava Maria? I like Ava Maria because I'm working out and I'm like --
Hard Candy.
HARRIS: Hard Candy. I like that. That's the name of the gym?
JERAS: Yes.
HARRIS: Probably a national chain?
JERAS: It's opening in Mexico. So it's worldwide. Right now, not any in the U.S., but probably down the line.
HARRIS: Terrific. See you next hour.
We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK. Let's look at this video, first. This was early morning, then. Rob, take a look at this. This is St. Louis, right and we've got some of the damage to some of the buildings there. Let me see here. Winds.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They had winds. There were a number of tornado warnings out, but likely some straight-line winds that did this. Measured in St. Louis of 62 miles an hour. But we had other reports of up to 70 across parts of Missouri, and eventually east --
HARRIS: Power lines down, trees down?
MARCIANO: Some roof damage. A couple of roof collapses as well. This is obviously in the middle of the night. So to get this sort of powerful storm late night, early morning, certainly an indication of just how explosive this is.
It is right here, right now, you can see the comma shape, just textbook. You see it intensifying here, winding itself up. The good news is here -- notice it's heading this way, it's not heading this way. So folks in the northeast will not get the brunt of this storm. They're certainly thankful for that, considering all of the damage that it is doing and doing very, very quickly.
We've got a couple of areas of concern. Lower Michigan. That's a tornado watch that's in effect until further notice, really. And we've got a number of warnings that are out. And this one, this is particularly -- they call this a PDS, a particularly dangerous situation. This watch here, meaning central Tennessee and northern Alabama. At this point yesterday, we didn't think it would get this far south to this extent, with this strength. But it certainly has and there are all your tornado warnings, now getting into western parts of Ohio.
So if you live in Defiance, if you live east towards Toledo, certainly you're going to want to take cover. And then Tennessee through parts of Mississippi. And the back side of this, Tony, 40 to 60-mile-an-hour winds without any sort of thunderstorms. And, also, a blizzard warning in North Dakota just to kind of put icing on the cake.
HARRIS: Just for a little more variety than we already have.
Rob, appreciate it. Thank you.
Want to get you to Newark, New Jersey, right now. There is a field hearing going on right now with Senator Frank Lautenberg. We've got our chief medical correspondent, as you see here, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Let's take him full. He is testifying before the Senate subcommittee on Toxic Chemicals and Children's Environmental Help.
Let's have a listen.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
GUPTA: -- best I can understood that it was an all-or-nothing sort of thing. Either you are lead poisoned or you are not. Dr. Phillip Landrigan, who you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, and his college Stephen Gehlbach found children close to the smelter were lead poisoned. That's what they expected to see.
They had vomiting, they had muscle weakness, they had convulsions, they had terrible symptoms of lead poisoning. But what they found, something else was unexpected. Children further away, exposed to much smaller levels of lead were affected, as well. Now, their symptoms weren't so obvious that their parents took their children to the doctor. But we know that lead exposure has a profound lifelong effects on these kids, leading to all sorts of neurodegenerative problems, a whole range of damage to the brain and the nervous system and comes back to the same point. If those adults now, who were children at the time had only had known then what they know now. We all know no amount of lead is completely safe.
I, like you, am not here to say that all chemicals are bad in all circumstances. You can even make a case that DDT, for example, had a significant role in preventing malaria in poor, tropical countries where malaria killed a lot of children at the time. But I think the stories of DDT and lead show us what we don't know can really hurt us. And there's a lot that we don't know. That was one of the most eye-opening things, I think, as we conducted this year-long investigation. You mentioned it already but out of the roughly 80,000 chemicals in commerce today there's only been required testing of 200 and restrictions on just 5. I think for the average person that hears this that knows nothing about the chemical industry, those are mind-boggling figures. As a Dad, and as a doctor, I was surprised to learn this. I assumed that the government that watched our organizations, I assumed that they signed off on the safety of these chemicals before they were introduced.
And time and time again, when we talk to experts, really all over the country from all different walks of our society, we started to hear the same refrain. That chemicals in this country are innocent until proven guilty. And the only way they're ultimately proven guilty is by health effects turning up in people who have been exposed, often years, if not decades later. As you said, Mr. Chairman, that kind of makes us all guinea pigs.
Something else struck me during my research as well, and that is that babies in this country are born prepolluted. I have a 5-year- old, a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old. I was in the midst of making this documentary when one of my children was born. I learned that children are being exposed in the womb. The study of umbilical cord blood, as you mentioned, found 287 chemicals -- lead, mercury, flame retardants, pesticides, dioxins, even PBCs, Mr. Chairman; those were banned in 1979, which I think makes a point that you were asking about earlier.
Research does tell us exposures at certain levels to these chemicals can be dangerous. And I'm sure Dr. Perera is going to have a lot more to say on this, she's done some truly remarkable work in this area looking how a pregnant woman's exposure to airborne pollutants can affect a child even years later.
Now what is difficult, it's not easy to tease out how much this chemical exposure in utero poses to newborns as they enter the world. That's a significant question. There are alarming statistics about the increase in certain diseases such as leukemia, brain tumors, asthma, autism, as you mentioned, but proving cause and effect is going to be difficult if not impossible.
In science, we expect absolute proof, it's a scientific method to which I was referring, but we don't always have it. The problem is, 30 years from now, a devastating health problem may emerge, just as we saw with lead.
Now as you know, Mr. Chairman, and you alluded to this, but the European Union has adopted a different standard to evaluate chemicals. We investigated this as well. It has the acronym REACH and the best way to describe it is more of a precautionary approach. No longer are chemicals innocent until proven guilty. The burden of showing a chemical is safe shifts in some ways from the regulator to the producer.
Now there's concerns always when something like this is introduced about adopting a precautionary principal, concerns about a company's bottom line, concerns about stifling innovation, so we investigated that as well. We talked to people overseas, we talked to people in the green chemistry industry right here in this country, people who have years of experience trying to figure out how to make the same products in less toxic ways.
They told us, they seem to believe the opposite would occur, in fact, if the precautionary principle were adopted. These green chemists seem to say that it would stifle -- I mean, it would spark innovation and that the industry would come up with new ways to try and create these products with fewer hazardous chemicals and emerge as profitable as ever. Just simply getting rid of the cost of disposing with a lot of the waste associated with the production of these products could be -- .
HARRIS: Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Toxic Chemicals and Children's Environmental Health headed up by Senator Frank Lautenberg.
The pictures of the day. Josh, this is amazing stuff you have for us.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's really cool.
Hey, Tony, I have a question for you.
HARRIS: Yes?
LEVS: Which would you rather pet, this 13-foot anaconda or this poison dart frog?
HARRIS: I'll take my chances with the anaconda.
LEVS: There you go. Twelve hundred new species have been discovered, I have highlights for you, including a blue-fanged tarantula just in time for Halloween. Also, a pink dolphin. I'll show you all of that coming up.
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HARRIS: Here we are, seven days until election day and we are following the fallout from a debate rules violation. Well, that's what it was.
Ed Henry, part of "The Best Political Team on Television," joining us live from the White House.
Wow, way to go.
Ed, what is crossing right now, sir?
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, you just mentioned it. This aide to the Democratic candidate for governor, Alex Sink, fired over this debate foul. John King, our own John King, was moderating this debate last night down in Florida, very close race with the Republican Rick Scott. And you can see from the videotape, a makeup artist was showing him a Droid device that had information from one of her staffers on it during a break in the debate. The rules very clearly said you cannot have any notes like that, any kind of device, anything like that, and our own Mark Preston was sort of in the middle of it, because Rick Scott, the Republican pointed it out to Mark. Mark went over and basically got the device. So the staffer who sent this message on to the gubernatorial candidate has now been fired.
We should also note, there are a lot of other issues covered beyond this sort of little gaffe. They talk about the economy and jobs, Florida, obviously, hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis as well. John King was all over that.
Secondly, take this endorsement and shove it. Not something you normally hear directed at the president of the United States, who was in Rhode Island yesterday, but the democratic candidate for governor there, Frank Caprio, frustrated and went on talk radio yesterday to basically tell the president to shove it, he used those words, because the president during that visit did not endorse him for governor.
White House says the reason is president is friends with Lincoln Chafee, the former Republican senator now running as an independent for governor. Didn't want to get involved in the race. We have video of Frank Caprio basically not going to the president's event, there's an empty chair, to show his little protest. And Bill Burton, White House spokesman, said, look, people are getting emotional. A week to go, people are getting emotional.
Finally out to Las Vegas. Interesting, in the Nevada Senate race, Senator Harry Reid, a big battle there with the Republican Sharron Angle, he's now had to force out a staffer involved in setting up a sham marriage for a Lebanese man in order to try to get him a U.S. citizenship.
Senator Reid just finding out about this has now pushed the staffer out. Illegal immigration, obviously, a hot issue out there in that race and this is one thing that happened in Vegas that obviously did not stay in Vegas.
HARRIS: You worked that in, didn't you? I love that.
HENRY: You had to get it in. I was just out there this weekend.
HARRIS: You've got those skills. All right, Ed, we got to run. We got to get Max Kellerman on the program.
Your next political update in an hour. And for the latest political news, you know where to go, that's CNNPolitics.com.
Here are some of the stories we're working on in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM.
You now have another reason to quit smoking. Scientists discover a connection between Alzheimer's and lighting up. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen is all over that study. And a major find in the wild kingdom, hundreds of new species are discovered. Our Josh Levs takes a close-up and personal look at some of the more unusual characters.
We're back in a moment.
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HARRIS: Tonight is the night basketball fans have been waiting for, the official start of a brand new season. Max Kellerman with HBO Sports and more importantly CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris, joining me from New York.
Max, good to see you. What storylines are you most interested in following this NBA season?
MAX KELLERMAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, LeBron James and the Miami Heat have to be number one. And the commercial last night with LeBron James was another unbelievable Nike commercial, and I think went a long way towards rehabilitating LeBron's image. Not just so much that people don't like him --
HARRIS: Oh, you don't believe that? Do you really, Max? You don't believe that? Come on.
KELLERMAN: I do. I'll tell you why, Tony. It's not just that he did a heel turn like in wrestling like the good guy becomes the bad guy. The real problem LeBron's image took, the hit he took when he went to Miami is people said, oh, wait a minute, we thought you were the alpha dog, the alpha male, the silverback, right? You were the guy. You were the protagonist in this story like Michael Jordan or Larry Bird or Magic Johnson or Kobe Bryant.
Turns out, no, you're a supporting player supporting Dwyane Wade. He's the guy. He's the central figure there, and that was a bad hit. Especially, Tony, for a company like Nike, which is a lifestyle brand, which says, hey, buy our stuff, because want to be associated with this brand. Why would you want to associate yourself with LeBron James after the decision?
HARRIS: What should I do, Max? Max, what should I do? Psycho babble. What should I do? Should I be more like you?
Come on, man. What you should do is play ball. That's what you should do. You should just do it. You should just win.
KELLERMAN: Well, LeBron balling is not the problem right now, especially not with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. He'll ball and he'll win, he'll win plenty.
The question is, are they good enough to win the championships from the Lakers? And that will ultimately be decided in the finals most likely.
But yes, I think, Tony, that that commercial made LeBron the protagonist again. It said, look, this guy had reasons for doing what he did, become reinvested in his story. And it shifted the focus from LeBron as a peripheral character to LeBron as the man again. And in that way, I thought it was brilliant.
HARRIS: Terrific. Max, see you tomorrow.
Max Kellerman, HBO Sports, and with us in the NEWSROOM.
Max, appreciate it. Thank you, sir.
