Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families

Thinking back to childhood summers, I remember that almost every year my dad would buy five gallon buckets of blacktop sealant to tidy up the wear on our driveway from New England winters. Then my brothers and I would spend months running on the stuff, often barefoot. Wow, was that a bad idea.

Last week, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) provided compelling evidence that our federal law on toxic chemicals, the 37 year-old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), is in terrible shape and doing a disservice to Americans’ health.

With the summer only a few weeks away, many parents are going out and buying new rain gear—but parents may unwittingly be exposing our most vulnerable children to lead, cadmium, and even phthalates, chemicals so toxic they have been banned in toys and baby products.

Join us for the premiere of Unacceptable Levels in Washington D.C. Thursday, June 20th!

Father’s day is right around the corner and a great time to talk about issues related to men’s health and toxic chemicals. A lot of our members are women, moms, moms-to-be, but that doesn’t dismiss the fact that toxic chemicals are compromising men’s health too.

Senator Frank Lautenberg was buried today at Arlington cemetery, closing a week of mourning and remembrance worthy of his long career in public service. I had the privilege of observing the Senator from a distance as a constituent when I was a young man and later to work closely with him and his staff after he returned to the Senate in 2002, mostly on the issue of chemical reform.

It’s just three more days until the first deadline for our new Mind the Store campaign. Since we launched, we’ve been off to a positive start. We’ve had thousands of emails sent to the retailers (over 50,000), bloggers have visited stores asking them to take a lead on getting rid of toxic chemicals in consumer products and we’ve sent letters to all of the CEOs of the retailers asking them to work with us on chemical action plans for their companies.

We’re just 8 days away… We’ve asked the big ten retailers to respond to our new Mind the Store campaign by June 1^st, and I think the initial responses will be telling to see who is willing to sit down with us and work out a plan for addressing toxic chemicals.

Time is a precious commodity for moms. Whenever I try to schedule a get together with one of my mom friends, it can be a month long process to get a happy hour or dinner on the calendar. Moms are busy picking up children from daycare, taking them to a softball game or helping them do homework. Time to do anything outside these daily commitments is rare and why it is important to acknowledge the significant role Minnesota parents played in passing two laws that will protect children from toxic chemicals.