Overview
All Americans deserve to live in a healthy and toxic-free
environment. Unfortunately, polluters continue to release billions of
pounds of toxic chemicals into our air, land, and water each year, many
of which can cause cancer and other severe health effects. In addition
to pollution, manufacturers use many of these toxic chemicals in a wide
range of consumer products from toys to laptops to mattresses. As a
result, toxic chemicals are showing up in unlikely places such as
household dust, human breast milk, and even in the cord blood of
newborn babies. Finally, chemical facilities that use or store
dangerous amounts of highly hazardous chemicals place literally
millions of Americans at risk in the event of an accidental or
deliberate release.
To address these toxic threats, we need bold policies that replace
toxic chemicals with safer alternatives, compel polluters to pay for
cleaning up past pollution, and require companies to tell the public
whenever they are storing or releasing toxic chemicals or putting them
in the products we purchase.
Needless to say, the chemical industry’s opposition to such measures
has been formidable. While states have begun to take action on toxic
chemicals, the industry has used its powerful lobby to block efforts at
national reform.
