• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Safer Chemicals Healthy Families

A national effort to protect families from toxic chemicals.

  • Get Involved
  • Our Work
    • News
    • Public Policy
    • Mind the Store
    • Successes
  • Get the Facts
  • About
  • Donate

Jennifer Beals / October 29, 2013

Jennifer Beals speaks out for toxic chemical reform

Actress and mother Jennifer Beals gave this speech to the Stroller Brigade in Washington DC this morning.

It’s a pleasure to be here among such inspiring and energizing advocates. Like many of you, I started my journey in the quest for strong laws on toxic chemicals because quite simply I am a mother and I am tired of feeling like I have to have a PhD in toxicology in order to be a competent parent.

I am tired of being a detective, hunting the Internet for clues as to what product is safe and what product is not safe and why.

I am tired of having to try to shop my way around this problem, deeply aware that not everyone is able to do so.

I am tired of debating school Administrators about artificial turf fields with crumb rubber–those black pellets that get everywhere and anywhere and that contain lead, phthalates, butadiene, styrene, carbon black, a whole host of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and now flame retardants.

I’m tired of reminding school administrators what is good for a tire is not good for a child.

I’m tired of hearing the school say, “well, the company says there’s only a little bit of lead in it…” Repeat after me–there is no such thing as an acceptable level of lead for children. Just ask Dr. Helen Binns from Chicago’s Children’s Memorial or Dr. Phillip Landrigan from Mount Sinai in NYC.

I am SO tired of reading “scientific studies” that say a product is safe only to find the study was funded by the industry it has exonerated.

I am tired of having chemical companies’ untested concoctions run through my veins uninvited.

Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, Exxon Mobil, etc. you are NOT invited to take up residence in my DNA.

Let this serve as an eviction notice-we are all tired of you barging into our sacred homes–our bodies and the bodies of our children.

We look to our government to provide our basic rights of clean air and water and yet right in front of us, in things we may be exposed to everyday, like our couches, household cleaners, toys or synthetic playing fields, lie toxic chemicals that have for the most part gone untested in their effect on human health and certainly have gone untested in aggregate.

For me, and for many of us here today, this is simply not acceptable.

I am proud to stand together with Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families for today’s Stroller Brigade.

Together we will send a message to Congress that the time has come for strong laws on toxic chemicals. There is nothing more important than protecting the health of our children and generations to come. No one’s profit margin can justify harm brought to our children and to future generations.

Jennifer Beals at the Stroller Brigade
Jennifer Beals at the Stroller Brigade

If you’d like to write for Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families feel free to join our blogger list here!
Share
Tweet

Actress Jennifer Beals (from Flashdance and The L-Word) has been an outspoken advocate for safer chemicals.

Filed Under: Policy & Regulation Tagged With: action, actress, advocates, artificial turf, cancer, chemicals, children, Congress, Dow, Dr. Helen Binns Chicago's Children's Memorial, Dr. Phillip Landrigan, Dupont, environmental, EPA, exposure, Exxon Mobil, families, future generations, health, Jennifer Beals, moms, Monsanto, Mount Sinai, phthalates, policy, products, reform, retailers, safer chemicals, school, stroller brigade, strong laws, toxic, toxic chemicals, Washington DC, bill, saferchemicals, safer, new, state, store

Primary Sidebar

rain jacket

Tell REI: Stop leaving a toxic trail of pollution

Take Action

Subscribe to Posts

Get our latest posts delivered to your inbox.

Get the Facts

These chemicals are linked to serious environmental and health problems. Check out our fact sheets, which draw from the leading peer-reviewed science.

  • Bisphenol A (BPA) & Bisphenol S (BPS)
  • Formaldehyde
  • Methylene chloride
  • Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxic Chemicals (PBTs)
  • PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances)
  • Phthalates
  • Toxic flame retardants
Other Chemicals »

Footer

Contact Us

200 Massachusetts Ave NW
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20001
Email

Search

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

© 2022 Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families — All rights reserved.

  • About Us
  • Privacy policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Feed