The Kid-Safe Chemicals Act

After reading my last blog entry, you may be wondering how cosmetics manufacturers get away with putting unsafe ingredients in their products. I was recently dismayed to find out that the law that governs our nation's chemicals "is widely regarded as one of the weakest of all environmental laws on the books today" according to this article.

The law, known as the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), was originally passed in 1976 to declare 62,000 chemicals safe. However, there were little or no data at the time to prove that these chemicals were, in fact, safe. Since then, 20,000 chemicals have been added, also with no proof of safety.

Happily, a new law is being considered: the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act (KSCA). It includes the following provisions:

• requires that industrial chemicals be safe for infants, kids and other vulnerable groups;
• requires that new chemicals be safety tested before they are sold;
• requires chemical manufacturers to test and prove that the 62,000 chemicals already on the market that have never been tested are safe in order for them to remain in commerce;
• requires EPA to review "priority" chemicals, those which are found in people's bodies, on an expedited schedule;
• requires regular biomonitoring to determine what chemicals are in people and in what amounts;
• requires regular updates of health and safety data and provides EPA with clear authority to request additional information and tests;
• provides incentives for manufacturers to further reduce health hazards;
• requires EPA to promote safer alternatives and alternatives to animal testing;
• protects state and local rights; and
• requires that this information be publicly available.

The article I cite above points out: "We are at a tipping point, where the pollution in people is increasingly associated with a range of serious diseases and conditions from childhood cancer, to autism, ADHD, learning deficits, infertility, and birth defects. Yet even as our knowledge about the link between chemical exposure and human disease grows, the government has almost no authority to protect people from even the most hazardous chemicals on the market."

If this issue is important to you, call your congress people and request that they co-sponsor the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act. It only takes a few minutes to ask, but it may make a major difference in how our children are protected well into the future.

Thanks,
Jenny