Take Action Now on Notorious Offenders!
How serious is Congress about reforming our Nation’s chemical laws?
Last week we told you about the congressional process in Washington, DC to reform our federal law that governs toxic chemical production and use, The Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA). Some of the chemicals under consideration are PBTs or Persistent, Bioaccumulative Toxins, which include some of the most notorious chemicals ever studied. These notorious offenders include: DDT, dioxin, mercury, cadmium, lead, mercury, the compound used to make Teflon and some flame retardants.
Unfortunately, these chemicals are still found in products we use every day in our homes and places of work. Also, the chemical industry is persistently lobbying congress, trying to convince them that the right thing to do is spend more years studying chemicals that scientists have already shown to be dangerous!
Why are we so concerned about PBTs? Well, because they are the triple threat:
- persist in the environment for a long time
- accumulate in living organisms
- highly toxic even at very low levels
The phase out of nonessential PBTs must be a critical piece of TSCA reform! Take Action NOW! Please write to your member of Congress to tell them that real TSCA reform will include taking immediate action to phase PBT chemicals out of commerce.
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