Keep Children Safe: Support the Kids Safe Chemicals Act
- by: Christopher Gavigan CEO, Children's Health Environmental Coalition - www.checnet.org
- recipient: United States Senate
The Kids, Worker and Consumer Safe Chemicals Act (S.1391), also known as the Kids Safe Chemicals Act, would help reduce children's exposure to hazardous chemicals before and after birth and protect workers and other people. The Act responds to the growing body of scientific literature which is identifying chemical exposures as a factor in the rise of disorders and diseases such as certain types of cancer, birth defects, asthma, neurological and developmental disorders and infertility. Biomonitoring studies are finding hundreds of these synthetic chemicals in our bodies, even in infants and fetuses. With approximately 50 percent of breast cancer cases unexplained by factors such as genetics or diet, scientists are increasingly looking into the environmental causes of the disease. The Kids Safe Chemicals Act would provide important safety measures in protecting people's health.
The Kids Safe Chemicals Act would:
* Require manufacturers to provide health and safety information prior to distributing a chemical in consumer products, instead of presuming a substance is safe until proven dangerous;
* Increase public awareness by providing much needed hazard and exposure information to EPA and the public; and
* Require EPA to determine the safety of 300 chemicals within the next five years. By 2020, all chemicals distributed in commerce would need to meet the safety standard.
I am writing to urge you to co-sponsor and support for the Kids Safe Chemicals Act (S. 1391) and become a co-sponsor of the legislation. This legislation would provide important safety protections for children, workers, and others regarding exposure to toxic chemicals.
An increasing number of scientific studies suggest that some chemicals may pose serious long-term public health risks, including cancer and childhood developmental disabilities. Powerful evidence suggests that environmental exposures, including everyday household chemicals found in pesticides, cleaning products, fuels, carpets and plastics, may trigger the chronic illness and disease in children.
For the vast majority of chemicals on the market today, there is little or no information available to the public on the potential human health impacts of exposure to these chemicals. The U.S. needs to create a system that provides adequate public information about the chemicals widely used in society and incentives to the business community to search for safer alternatives when hazardous chemicals are identified.
For these reasons, I urge you to co-sponsor The Kids Safe Chemicals Act (S.1391), which would require the submission of health data on commercial chemicals and establish a basic health standard for all chemicals used in consumer products--to protect children, workers, sensitive populations, consumers and others. Thank you for your consideration of this critically important legislation.
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