What better way to mark Earth Month than with the Safe Chemicals Act? It has finally been introduced by the Congress! Over 85,000 concerned mothers, fathers, grandparents, and activists (myself included) have signed the petition supporting the Kid-Safe Chemicals Campaign. The signatures were delivered to Senators Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Barbara Boxer (CA) and Congressman Bobby Rush (IL-01).
This is just the beginning and we need all the help we can get with even more signatures so that the Congressmen of each of our states get the picture, we want them to support the Kid-Safe Chemicals Campaign!
"The current law is riddled with so many loopholes that in more than 30 years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been able to regulate only five of the 83,000 chemicals in use in consumer goods.
The bill would also begin to peel away the shroud of secrecy that allows only industry and select EPA employees to see “confidential” data on chemicals. As a result, two-thirds of all synthetics brought to market in the past 30 years have been secret chemicals, their identities concealed from the public and independent scientists. Even first responders and state health authorities have no access to these chemical identities and safety data about them." EWG
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Making industrial chemicals safer is something we can all get behind. If we want safer chemicals and a safer environment then we must use nonanimal methods of testing.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, many toxicity tests are based on experiments in animals and use methods that were developed as long ago as the 1930’s; they and are slow, inaccurate, open to uncertainty and manipulation, and do not adequately protect human health. These tests take anywhere from months to years, and tens of thousands to millions of dollars to perform. More importantly, the current testing paradigm has a poor record in predicting effects in humans and an even poorer record in leading to actual regulation of dangerous chemicals.
The blueprint for development and implementation for nonanimal testing is the National Research Council report, "Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy in 2007." This report calls for a shift away from the use of animals in toxicity testing. The report also concludes that human cell- and computer-based approaches are the best way to protect human health because they allow us to understand more quickly and accurately the varied effects that chemicals can have on different groups of people. They are also more affordable and more humane.
These methods are ideal for assessing the real world scenarios such as mixtures of chemicals, which have proven problematic using animal-based test methods. And, they're the only way we can assess all chemicals on the market.
We should all create an Eco friendly society if we love our children so that they can have a better place to live in when they grow up.
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