Join the Million Baby Crawl for toxic chemical reform
Friday, November 20, 2009
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Maria Pilar ClarkRecent posts
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Did you know that of the 80,000 chemical compounds
in use, only 200 have been safety tested by the Environmental
Protection Agency? It's crazy!
Seventh Generation is inviting parents, grandparents, teachers and everyone else who cares about the diaper clad to join the Million Baby Crawl, a virtual march on Washington, D.C. in order to reform the severely outdated Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which Congress created 33 years ago.
The goal is to build grassroots support for a bill called the Kid-Safe Chemical Act that Senator Frank Lautenberg (NJ) is presenting to Congress over the next month.
The bill would overhaul our nation's chemical regulatory law and require that industrial chemicals be safe for infants and children. New chemicals would have to be thoroughly tested, and chemical manufacturers would be required to test and prove the safety of untested chemicals already in mainstream market products (and make their findings available to the public).
Affect change, help urge Congress to pass stricter safety standards for chemicals and generally get on your big mama bear soapbox by joining. Not only can you create your very own crawler (they're pretty cute actually), but more importantly, you can also learn more about the issues, get the stat facts, and help spread the word. Every crawler represents another voice added to in support of reform.
Maria Pilar Clark is a mom times two and Windy City-based writer.
See more of Pilar's stories here.
Contact Pilar at mariapilarclark@yahoo.com
Chemical reform should modernize science and policy
By Charli on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Thanks Chicago Parent, for posting something about keeping our kids safe. I think making industrial chemicals safe for infants and children is something we can all get behind. Problem is: mandating more chemical testing, the kind being advocated by the Safer Chemicals coalition, will kill millions of animals, cost lots of money, and give use questionable results. Currently, many toxicity tests are based on experiments in animals and uses methods that were developed as long ago as the 1930’s and 40’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. Alternatives to animal testing exist in a powerful way and many scientists advocate them. Chemical reform should not only modernize policy, but modernize the science that supports that policy. Let's ensure Kids-Safe uses all the necessary tools to truly make our children, our environment, and animals safe.