Workgroup for Safe Markets launches new website

My friends at the Workgroup for Safe Markets have launched a new website that you might find interesting.  Go to http://www.safemarkets.org/.  

The Workgroup for Safe Markets is a US-based collaborative of groups united by a common concern about hazardous chemicals in our homes, our bodies and our environment; and a common vision of a cleaner, healthier economy. These groups are leading the effort to protect our families and communities from the devastating impacts of toxic chemicals, and to shift the economy to safer products and practices. The Workgroup for Safe Markets is part of the Coming Clean collaborative, which hosts leading environmental health and justice experts who are working to reform the chemical and energy industries so they are no longer a source of harm. For more information, visit www.ComingCleanInc.org.

Clearly identifying toxic chemicals in products small businesses use and sell to customers is important.  Protecting the health of our employees, customers and ourselves is a goal we should strive to achieve.  And if we can do that while at the same time creating jobs through the development of safer chemicals to replace the toxic ones, we improve our economy also.

And we say we love our children

You probably wonder why the rate of childhood diseases like autism are at all-time highs.  Same thing for cases of Attention Deficit Disorder.   The answer might be right on store shelves.

The Washington Toxics Coalition and Safer States report that children’s products are loaded with toxic chemicals like mercury, arsenic and cadmium.  Over 5000 of these products are just waiting for you to purchase and take home to poison your kids.

Having a child’s birthday party?  Why not make them wear party hats from Hallmark containing cancer-causing arsenic.  Those cute dolls from Walmart have a little something extra for your child—the hormone-disrupting bisphenol A.

The researchers didn’t have to do a lot of testing to find the 41 toxic chemicals used in these children’s products.  The manufacturers were required by a Washington state law to report any toxic chemicals used in their products for kids. 

Other states are trying to pass the same kind of law so at least the states or researchers can connect the dots for consumers. 

What kind of country are we that doesn’t make manufacturers of any consumer product, let alone products for our children, disclose if they are using toxic chemicals and then make them stop it.  When the voters and small business owners are asked if they want more government protection from toxic chemicals, the answer is overwhelmingly YES.

But yet our federal and almost all state governments refuses to act.

We say we love our kids and buy them lots of stuff…stuff that is making them sick. 

We adults are the ones who are sick for allowing this to go on.

Read the full press release on this issue below.

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Children’s Product Makers Report Over 5000 Products Contain Toxic Chemicals Of Concern To Kids’ Health

May 01, 2013

Seattle, WA –Over 5000 children’s products contain toxic chemicals linked to cancer, hormone disruption, and reproductive problems according to reports filed with the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology).  An analysis of the reports by the Washington Toxics Coalition and Safer States found that makers of kids’ products reported using a total of 41 chemicals identified by Ecology as a concern for children’s health, including toxic metals such as cadmium, mercury, and antimony, and organic compounds such as phthalates.  Major manufacturers who reported using the chemicals in their products include Walmart, Gap, Gymboree, Hallmark, and H & M.

Examples of product categories reported to contain toxic chemicals include:

• Hallmark party hats containing cancer-causing arsenic.
• Graco car seats containing the toxic flame retardant TBBPA (tetrabromobisphenol A)
• Claire’s cosmetics containing cancer-causing formaldehyde.
• Walmart dolls containing hormone-disrupting bisphenol A.

“The data shows store shelves remain full of toxic chemicals that we know are a concern for children’s health,” said Erika Schreder, science director for the Washington Toxics Coalition. “These reports are critical for understanding the presence of toxic chemicals in our homes and the marketplace.”

The chemical reports are required under Washington State’s Children’s Safe Products Act of 2008, which requires major companies making children’s products to report the presence of toxic chemicals in their products. The reports cover certain children’s products sold in Washington State from June 1, 2012 to March 1, 2013.

Major findings from the reports include: 

• More than 5,000 products have been reported to date as containing a chemical on Washington State’s list of 66 Chemicals of High Concern to Children.
• Products reported so far include children’s clothing and footwear, personal care products, baby products, toys, car seats, and arts and craft supplies.
• Toxic metals such as mercury, cadmium, cobalt, antimony, and molybdenum were reported, with cobalt being the metal most often reported.  
• Manufacturers reported using phthalates in clothing, toys, bedding, and baby products. 
• Other chemicals reported include solvents like ethylene glycol and methyl ethyl ketone, and a compound used in silicone known as octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane.

“Too many products contain chemicals that do not belong in items we give our kids. To truly protect children, manufacturers need to identify safer ways to make their products and stop using harmful chemicals,” said Schreder.

A Washington state bill that would have required manufacturers to stop using toxic flame retardants in children’s products and to identify safer ways to make their products failed to pass the legislature before the end of the regular session on April 28th.  The Toxic-Free Kids and Families Act (HB 1294) was opposed by a coalition led by the American Chemistry Council, Walmart, and the Association of Washington Business.

Walmart, a major opponent of the Toxic-Free Kids and Families Act, reported a total of 459 instances of products containing chemicals including arsenic, cadmium, phthalates, bisphenol A (BPA), and mercury.

“It is particularly disturbing to see the large numbers of products reported by Walmart at the same time the company has been working to defeat Washington’s bill that would address some of the most problematic uses,” said Schreder. “Companies like Walmart need to show they’re serious about children’s health by getting toxic chemicals out of their products and supporting common-sense legislation.”

Washington State is the first state to have a comprehensive chemical reporting program.  It is considered a model for other states.

“The Washington experience shows these reporting programs can work without being too burdensome on business,” said Sarah Doll, Director of Safer States. “At least seven additional states are considering implementing similar programs on the extent of chemical use in children’s products in their state. Critical in these proposals are requirements that companies begin looking at safer ways to make their products and an eventual phase-out of the use of harmful chemicals.”  

A full analysis of Washington State’s chemical use reports are available at http://www.watoxics.org/chemicalsrevealed

A searchable database of chemical use reports filed with the Washington State Department of Ecology is available at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/swfa/cspa/search.html

The Washington Toxics Coalition is nonprofit organization that works to protect public health and the environment from toxic chemicals in Washington state. www.watoxics.org, www.facebook.com/watoxics or @WA_Toxics

Safer States (The State Alliance for Federal Reform (SAFER) of Chemical Policy) is a coalition of state-based organizations championing solutions to protect public health and communities from toxic chemicals. www.saferstates.org, www.facebook.com/saferstates or @SaferStates

Reform the Toxic Substance Control Act

Reforming the federal Toxic Substance Control Act is widely supported by small business owners across the country.  That was one of the conclusions of a poll released in late 2012.  My opinion editorial in The Hill gives more of the results of that poll.

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The New York Times 

April 18, 2013

A Toothless Law on Toxic Chemicals

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

It would be hard to design a law more stacked against the regulators than the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, which is supposed to ensure the safety of thousands of chemicals used in household products and manufacturing. It is long past time for Congress to reform the law so that it provides genuine protection against harmful chemicals in products like shampoos and detergents.

Tens of thousands of inadequately tested chemicals were allowed to remain in use after the law was enacted. For the most part, the law requires the government to prove that a chemical is unsafe before it can be removed or kept off the market instead of requiring manufacturers to prove that their chemicals are safe before they can be sold and used. And it makes it hard for the Environmental Protection Agency to pry the information it needs to assess risk from the manufacturers or to require them to conduct tests.

Companies have to alert the E.P.A. before introducing new chemicals, but they don’t have to provide any safety data. It is up to the agency to find relevant scientific information elsewhere or use inexact computer modeling to estimate risk. The agency can only ask the company for data or require testing if it first proves there is a potential risk, which is hard to do without the company’s data.

The failure of the law can be read in these dismal statistics: since 1976, from a universe of chemicals that now numbers roughly 85,000, the agency has issued regulations to control only five existing chemicals.

Senators Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat of New Jersey, and Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat of New York, recently introduced a bill — the Safe Chemicals Act of 2013 — that would modernize and reform the law, mostly by requiring manufacturers to prove that a chemical is safe before it can be sold. It has more than two dozen Democratic co-sponsors but is opposed by the chemical industry and many Republicans, who argue that the E.P.A. already has enough power to regulate chemicals and simply needs to exercise it more effectively. The American Academy of Pediatrics, a far better guide to what’s needed to protect children, endorsed the bill on Wednesday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/opinion/a-toothless-law-on-toxic-chemicals.html?ref=opinion

Don't tie the hands of Consumer Product Safety Commission

The Hill’s Congress Blog 

By Frank Knapp, Jr.

We have heard an ongoing cry from organizations claiming to represent all businesses that they oppose any government action on toxic chemicals in our products, warning of increased costs and job losses. Now, a new independent poll shows that when it comes to protecting workers and consumers from negative effects of toxic chemicals, small-business owners agree with voters in that both want to be protected by stricter regulations.

A national poll released in July also showed that voters are seriously concerned and want action taken regarding the threat posed to people’s health from exposure to chemicals they come in contact with regularly.

This national poll of more than 500 small-business owners was conducted by Lake Research Partners and Public Opinion Strategies. The poll was commissioned by the American Sustainable Business Council, a national coalition of business organizations, which together represent over 150,000 small and medium businesses sharing the goal of a sustainable economy.

Some big-business organizations have dominated the public debate about government regulations, often citing their concern for the impact of regulation on small businesses. Convincing the public that all regulations are evil and a threat to small-business growth, organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have made anti-regulation legislation in Congress a priority.

But the reality is that small-business owners are not of the same mind as CEOs of multinational corporations. While the latter are consumed with maximizing profits to satisfy Wall Street, small-business owners are focused on growing healthy Main Streets.

Small-business owners have always had a strong sense of community; they are not just a major part of local economies. They are your neighbors whose children go to local schools. Their families worship in local houses of faith and attend community plays and sporting events. They have the same interests, concerns and desires as the workers they employ and the customers they serve.

The small-business owners’ poll found that:

- 75 percent support stricter regulations of chemicals used in everyday products.
--87 percent support government regulations of chemicals used in growing food.

- 73 percent support government regulations to ensure the products companies buy and sell are non-toxic.


- 91 percent support chemical manufacturers being held responsible for ensuring their chemicals are safe.


- 76 percent support tax incentive for companies that innovate to provide safer chemicals.


- 92 percent support regulations to protect air and water from pollution by toxic chemicals.


- 78 percent support government regulations to reduce air pollutants linked to environmental and health problems.

In this poll, small-business owners strongly believe regulations should require the transparency needed to ensure safer products. Eighty-two percent believe that businesses should be required to share chemical ingredient information all along the manufacturing supply chain -- from chemical production to final consumer product. Creating a public, easily accessible database identifying chemicals of concern to human and environmental health is supported by 92 percent of small-business owners.

Small-business owners understand that the way to achieve greater protection from toxic chemicals is to reform the federal law dealing with chemical regulations. The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was passed more than 36 years ago and has never been updated to deal with the new world of chemical threats.

Congressional legislation to reform TSCA would require chemical manufacturers to show that their chemicals are safe in order to sell them. Chemicals that may harm the public health could be limited and companies would be able to receive government support for research and development for innovation in producing safer chemicals. Seventy-three percent of small-business owners support this TSCA reform.

As we head into a new congressional session, elected leaders need to take a break from misguided efforts to stall or kill all regulations through legislation such as Senate Bill 3468, which would curtail the Consumer Product Safety Commission from protecting children from toxic chemicals. Instead, Congress should listen to the real opinions of small-business owners and voters. Stronger regulation of chemicals to protect our health and safety, and spur companies to create safer chemicals is a goal shared by all Americans.

Knapp is the vice chairman of the American Sustainable Business Council Action Fund and president/CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce.

Source: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-a-budget/270289-dont-tie-the-hands-of-consumer-product-safety-commission

Toxic Chemical Reform Good for Business – New Poll

91% of Small Businesses Want Chemical Industry Held Responsible for Safe Chemicals in Marketplace

 http://asbcouncil.org/toxic-chemicals-poll

Washington, DC – American small business owners want the chemical industry to be held responsible for toxic chemicals in the marketplace, according to a new poll commissioned by the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC). Small business owners nationwide show strong support for stricter regulation of toxic chemicals. The October study examined the attitudes and opinions of 511 small business owners around the country.

“Organizations like the American Chemistry Council have made anti-regulation legislation in Congress and state legislatures a top priority, pushing the myth that all regulations are a threat to small business growth,” said David Levine, Co-founder and CEO of ASBC. “But the reality is that small-business owners see the value of sound regulations to help guide the market to deliver innovation for safer chemicals and products, which consumers are demanding. This data shows that no matter what your political affiliation is, there is agreement that toxic chemicals need to be regulated to prevent risk for business and the public.”  

Pointing out that an earlier poll of voters found very similar opinions on the need for toxic chemical regulations, Frank Knapp Jr., Vice Chair of the ASBC Action Fund and president/CEO of the S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce said, “Small-business owners have always had a strong sense of community; they are not just a major part of local economies. They are your neighbors whose children go to local schools. Their families worship in local houses of faith and attend community plays and sporting events. They have the same interests, concerns and desires as the workers they employ and the customers they serve.”

“Failure of adequate chemical transparency and regulation in the U.S. denies both manufacturers and consumers the ability to choose alternative materials and products. Consumer choice is the basis of free enterprise. More choices for consumers is better for everyone,” said Ally Latourelle, VP of Government Affairs for BioAmber, based in Plymouth, Minnesota.

"Consumer confidence takes a dive when people learn that they are bringing dangerous chemicals into their homes, because there is no regulation. That's bad for business," said Andy Igrejas, Director of the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition. "This data shows that, like most Americans from across the political spectrum, small business owners believe that ensuring the health and safety of chemicals is good for our health and good for the health of our economy too."

The poll found:

--75% support stricter regulations of chemicals used in everyday products.

--87% support government regulations of chemicals used in growing food.

--73% support government regulations to ensure the products companies buy and sell are non-toxic.

--91% support chemical manufacturers being held responsible for ensuring their chemicals are safe.

--76% support tax incentives for companies that innovate to provide safer chemicals.

--92% support regulations to protect air and water from pollution by toxic chemicals.

--78% support government regulations to reduce air pollutants linked to environmental and health problems.

The poll details may be found here: http://asbcouncil.org/toxic-chemicals-poll

The only significant chemicals legislation to pass the Environment and Public Works Committee this year was the Safe Chemicals Act. It is pending in the US Senate, though unlikely to receive a vote in the lame duck session. However, with Democrats retaining the Senate, Senator Lautenberg is in a strong position to move the legislation and plans to do so early in the new year. The bill has 27 co-sponsors, including most of the Senate leadership. 

A petition for business owners urging Congress to update the 34-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act was started by ASBC. It can be found here: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6269/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=9082

The poll was commissioned by the American Sustainable Business Council and conducted by Lake Research Partners in partnership with Public Opinion Strategies.

The American Sustainable Business Council and its member organizations represent more than 150,000 businesses nationwide, and more than 300,000 entrepreneurs, executives, managers, and investors. The non-partisan council includes chambers of commerce, trade associations, and groups representing small business, investors, microenterprise, social enterprise, green and sustainable business, local living economy, and women and minority business leaders. ASBC informs and engages policy makers and the public about the need and opportunities for building a vibrant and sustainable economy.  www.asbcouncil.org

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Poisoning our children

Retailers of back to school clothing are seeing parents and older school-age children holding out before going all in on purchasing.  It’s all about being fashionable.

In an interview with the New York Times, Amazon’s fashion president Cathy Beaudoin says that waiting until after Labor Day to buy clothes for older kids allows the students to see what others are wearing.   Janney Capital Markets’ Adrienne Tennant said, “with young girls, when you’re going into a big trend season, the early adopters will certainly be there, but the fashion followers will buy some stuff to start themselves off with, but go back to school and make sure they got the right color, the right fit and the right trend.”

Unfortunately this fashionably later buying did not happen for our youngest children in school.  Had the parents of these children waited until this week to buy their kids new backpacks, lunchboxes, binders, rainboots and raincoats, their children might not be wearing and toting products with toxic chemicals that “have been linked to birth defects, infertility, early puberty, asthma, ADHD, obesity, diabetes, and cancer.”

According to a new report released this weekend by Center for Health, Environment and Justice’s Green Schools Campaign and the Empire State Consumer Project:

"New laboratory tests reveal children’s vinyl “back‐to‐school” supplies are laden with hidden toxic chemicals harmful to children’s health. This new investigation demonstrates that popular children’s school supplies contain elevated levels of phthalates, hazardous chemicals that have been banned in toys, yet remain widespread in vinyl back‐to‐school supplies."

Phthalates are toxic chemicals primarily used to soften vinyl plastic.  They are particularly hazardous to young children even at low levels. Congress banned these chemicals from being used in toys, baby bottle nipples, pacifiers, etc. aimed at children in any amount greater than 0.1 percent of the mass of the entire product. 

But as this new investigation reveals, your older children are coming in contact with school supplies and apparel containing up to 69 times the toxic chemicals banned from toys.  Here are some of the products that pose a serious danger to your child:

Amazing Spiderman Backpack

Dora the Explorer Backpack

Brave Backpack

WVE “The Rock” Backpack

Disney Princes Lunchbox

Amazing Spiderman Lunchbox

Access Bag N Pack Lunch Bag

Fridge Green 6 Can Cooler

Pink Tinted View 1.5” Hard Binder

Brown Polka Dot/Hot Chocolate 1” Hard Binder

Smart Fit Kids Multi Rainboot

Smart Fit Kids Pink Rainboot

Disney Princess Rose Kids Rainboot

Disney Rain Slicker—Minie Mouse

Spider Sense Spiderman Youth Rain Poncho

And the danger to your family is not just from these products for children.  These phthalates are still widely used in other vinyl products and “have been found in the air and dust of our homes and schools, our bodies, blood and breast milk.”

Congress should update the Toxic Substances Control Act, a 36-year old out dated federal law that is failing to protect the consumers, especially our children.  The public doesn’t think it is fashionable for businesses to be poisoning our kids with toxic chemicals.  And on behalf of the nation’s small businesses, we don’t want to sell products with these chemicals that are hazardous to the health of our children.    

National Poll Shows Bipartisan Support For Stronger Protections From Toxic Chemicals

WASHINGTON, DC (July 19, 2012) – A nationwide poll and four separate, statewide polls found similar strong support for bolstering protections against toxic chemicals. By overwhelming bipartisan margins, Americans support strengthening the 35-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), according to new polls released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families Coalition, and the Ecology Center.

“Americans of all stripes have real concerns about the toxic chemicals we are exposed to every day – and the serious health problems they cause,” said Daniel Rosenberg, director of NRDC’s toxic chemicals reform project. “Protecting us from chemicals linked to cancer, learning disabilities, infertility and other health problems should be a top priority for Congress. This really can’t wait.”

NRDC and the Safer Chemical Healthy Families coalition strongly support the Safe Chemicals Act, S. 847, introduced by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. The bill updates TSCA by requiring manufacturers to show that their chemicals are safe in order to sell them. It also streamlines the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to limit uses of a chemical that may harm public health or the environment.

“As the Senate moves closer to a vote on the Safe Chemicals Act, Senators should keep in mind that the partisan divisions that wrack Congress do not reflect the views or desires of the American people,” said Andy Igrejas, campaign director of Safer Chemicals Healthy Families.

A nationwide poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies (POS) for NRDC found:

-Nearly 74 percent of those polled think the threat posed to people’s health by the exposure to toxic chemicals is serious, with 34 percent saying they think the threat is “very serious.”
-68 percent of respondents support stricter regulation of chemicals used and produced in the United States, with support across all demographic sub-groups, including those typically opposed to government regulation, such as self-described conservatives (54 percent) and tea party supporters (51 percent).
-Description of a proposal that would require the chemical industry to prove that its products are safe and give EPA greater authority to restrict some or all uses of chemicals that may harm health or the environment garnered support from 77 percent of respondents.

“Even when we presented robust arguments on both sides of the issue, those we polled continued to side with supporters of reform,” said Lori Weigel, a partner at polling firm Public Opinion Strategies, who conducted the national poll for NRDC.

POS and Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3) also conducted a poll in New Mexico that found:

-76 percent of respondents consider chemical exposure a serious health threat in day-to-day life.74 percent of respondents support the legislation described that would increase EPA authority and require that the chemical industry prove its products are safe – including 81percent of women, and 78 percent of Latino respondents.

Meanwhile, separate polls conducted by The Mellman Group for the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families Coalition in Nevada and Missouri found:

-62 percent of respondents in Missouri support stricter regulation of chemicals, and 64 percent support the provisions of legislation to strengthen the current law;
In Nevada, 61 percent of respondents support stricter regulation while 64 percent support the provisions of the legislation.

“There is a rare depth of public support for tackling the issue of toxic chemicals that crosses party lines,” said Mark Mellman of the Mellman Group, who conducted statewide polling on the issue in Nevada, Missouri this month and Montana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in 2011.

Finally, a Michigan poll conducted by POS with Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner Research for Ecology Center in Michigan found 74 percent of respondents supportive of legislation described to increase EPA’s authority to regulate chemicals and require chemical companies to prove that their products are safe. The poll also found 61 percent of respondents were extremely or very concerned about the health impacts from toxic chemicals in the Great Lakes, and 32 percent were somewhat concerned. A mere 6 percent were not concerned.

"The findings of this poll demonstrate that Michiganders support a change in the way our nation deals with toxic chemicals," said Rebecca Meuninck, campaign director of the Michigan Network for Children's Environmental Health. "Michigan residents are concerned about the impacts toxic chemicals have on their health and the health of the Great Lakes."

About the poll: For the national poll, Public Opinion Strategies conducted a telephone survey of 800 registered voters nationwide. The survey, conducted June 25 through June 27, 2012, has an overall margin of error of +/-3.46 percent nationwide.