kid safe chemical act

[Guest guest]

i can think of no other place than here to get the word out!

 

 

Why We Need The Kid-Safe Chemicals Act

 

 

We are at a tipping point, where the pollution in people is increasingly

associated with a range of serious diseases and conditions from childhood

cancer, to autism, ADHD, learning deficits, infertility, and birth defects.

People are polluted with hundreds of industrial chemicals. Babies are born

pre-polluted with 300 industrial chemicals in their bodies when they enter the

world.

 

Yet even as our knowledge about the link between chemical exposure and human

disease grows, the government has almost no authority to protect people from

even the most hazardous chemicals on the market.

 

It's time to step up and protect our children. The Kid-Safe Chemicals Act will

finally provide the strong regulation we need. You can read the specifics of the

Act toward the bottom of this email but PLEASE tell Congress and President Obama

that you won't stand for this any longer.

 

SIGN THE DECLARATION:

http://www.ewg.org/kid-safe-chemicals-act-blog/sign-the-petion-to-protect-kids/

 

 

BACKGROUND INFO/SPECIFICS ABOUT THE ACT

The nation's toxic chemical regulatory law, the Toxic Substances Control Act, is

in drastic need of reform. Passed in 1976 and never amended since, TSCA is

widely regarded as the weakest of all major environmental laws on the books

today.

 

When passed, the Act declared safe some 62,000 chemicals already on the market,

even though there were little or no data to support this policy. Since that time

another 20,000 chemicals have been put into commerce in the United States, also

with little or no data to support their safety.

 

Testing by Environmental Working Group has identified 455 chemicals in people,

and again, no one has any idea if these exposures are safe.

 

This pollution in people is the direct result of a statute that does not require

chemicals to be proven safe to get on the market, or stay on the market. Under

federal law EPA does not have the authority to demand the information it needs

to evaluate a chemical's risk, and neither manufacturers nor the EPA are

required to prove a chemical's safety as a condition of use.

 

The Kid-Safe Chemical Act will change all this through a fundamental overhaul of

our nation's chemical regulatory law. Specifically, the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act:

 

* requires that industrial chemicals be safe for infants, kids and other

vulnerable groups;

* requires that new chemicals be safety tested before they are sold;

* requires chemical manufacturers to test and prove that the 62,000

chemicals already on the market that have never been tested are safe in order

for them to remain in commerce;

* requires EPA to review " priority " chemicals, those which are found in

people, on an expedited schedule;

* requires regular biomonitoring to determine what chemicals are in people

and in what amounts;

* requires regular updates of health and safety data and provides EPA with

clear authority to request additional information and tests;

* provides incentives for manufacturers to further reduce health hazards;

* requires EPA to promote safer alternatives and alternatives to animal

testing;

* protects state and local rights; and

* requires that this information be publicly available.