community health

ABOUT COMMUNITY HEALTH

Chemicals—including heavy metals, such as mercury and lead, as well as manmade chemicals—are always around us, whether we realize it or not. Humans and wildlife are exposed to chemicals in myriad ways: through food, dust, clothing, and incinerator pollution, not to mention as a result of the toxic products dumped into landfills, which leach chemicals into our ground and drinking water. Even small amounts of chemical exposure have been linked with neurological harm, endocrine and reproductive disorders, cancers, learning disabilities, and birth defects.

Environmental Advocates of New York is focused on reducing our exposure to dangerous chemicals and requiring chemical producers and distributors to share information about such chemicals so the public can be better educated about potential dangers.

  
Toxic Substances Control Act

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), designed to protect Americans from chemicals in consumer products, was passed by Congress in 1976, but has not been updated since. Since that time, approximately 62,000 chemicals were ‘grandfathered’ into the TSCA’s chemicals list and assumed safe without sufficient testing or research. Currently, 83,000 chemicals are used regularly in the manufacture of commonly used products, including texiles, toys, and furniture. Of these, only about 200 have been adequately tested for safety. Only five chemicals have been banned under TSCA, the last in 1990. Efforts to reform the law have been ineffective.

For more information about TSCA, click here.

Single-Chemical Policies

Individual states have recently begun passing single-chemical policy bills. Eighteen state legislatures, including New York’s, have passed 71 chemical safety laws over the last eight years by overwhelming, bipartisan margins. New York State laws include bans or restrictions on mercury, lead, Bisphenol-A (BPA), cadmium, and flame retardants.

Single-chemical policy reform at the state level is important in the fight for broader reform at the national level. Heavily staffed lobbying groups highly funded by the chemical industry argue that consumers want cheaper products, despite the potential dangers of the chemicals they may contain. Public health advocates disagree, and the work of states banning chemicals has proven otherwise, as well.

The fight to keep BPA out of consumer products is a good example of how much New Yorkers care. BPA is a known estrogen-mimicking endocrine disruptor linked to heart disease, Type-2 Diabetes, immune system disruption, brain deterioration, cancer, and obesity. Thanks to New York’s ban, manufacturers have phased out the use of this chemical in certain children’s products nationwide. However, BPA is still commonly used in products, such as receipt paper and canned food. (For more information on BPA, click here.)

To protect New Yorkers from untested chemicals, Environmental Advocates of New York works with a coalition pushing for a comprehensive New York State chemical policy reform bill, A.3141, which would better regulate use of toxic chemicals in children’s products. The bill would establish an infrastructure within state government to categorize chemicals of concern, prioritize them based on the likelihood for childhood exposure, and require disclosure by product manufacturers as to whether products contain priority chemicals. The measure would phase out children’s apparel and novelty products made with priority chemicals after two years.

Cleaning Products Enforcement

A New York State law passed in 1971 requires cleaning product manufacturers to disclose the ingredients in household cleaning products to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The law also requires manufacturers to describe any company research on the chemicals’ effects on public and environmental health. Since state regulations were adopted in 1976, companies have failed to file a single public or environmental health report.

Household and commercial cleaning products typically contain an array of chemicals that can be harmful to public health and to the environment. A growing body of evidence associates exposure to such chemicals with long-term effects, such as cancer and hormone disruption. And because many cleaning chemicals survive sewage treatment systems intact and are released into streams and other bodies of water, there is growing concern such chemicals pose a threat to fish and other wildlife.

Despite the dangers of many of the chemicals used in cleaning products, there is no state or federal requirement compelling cleaning product manufacturers to identify chemical ingredients on product labels. This makes it difficult if not impossible for consumers to determine if a particular cleaning product contains dangerous chemicals. New York State has committed to begin requiring household cleaning companies to reveal the chemical ingredients in their products and any health risks they pose. With our coalition partners, Environmental Advocates is calling on industry to disclose these chemicals using a centralized database, which would allow consumers to make informed decisions for themselves and their families about the products used in their homes.

Until we know more about what is in the products we bring into our homes, we can easily make our own.

For a list of green cleaning products approved by New York’s Green Cleaning Program, click here.