MA PTA Joins Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Campaign

Mass PTA has joined Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, a national advocacy campaign for smarter federal policies about toxic chemicals. The goal is to give the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the tools it needs to put common sense limits on toxic chemicals.

Current laws do not provide the safeguards to protect the public (especially children) from toxic substances. Indeed, our children are the hit and run victims of the thousands of health damaging and life altering "stealth" substances in our water, air and food and in the consumer products we use in our daily.

The MassPTA position statement on Safe and Nurturing Environments dedicates us to support, expand, and improve efforts to protect children from toxic exposures that cause preventable illnesses and disabilities.

Just as MassPTA works for the passage of The Safer Alternatives Bill as the smart policy for Massachusetts, we urge our federal policy makers to set a high standard for children's health and safety, public health and corporate accountability.

The January 4, 2010 Washington Post article, "Law Allows Companies to Hide Risks of Chemicals" (Washington Post front page Jan. 4, 2010) focuses on one of the most serious gaps in the 1976 law, the "trade secrets" exemption that keeps the public and the government in the dark about any information a company claims could harm its profits.

The Washington Post article tells the story of a Colorado nurse who fell seriously ill after treating a worker involved at a chemical spill at a gas-drilling site...Two days later, the nurse, Cathy Behr, was fighting for her life. Her liver was failing and her lungs were filling with fluid. Behr said her doctors diagnosed chemical poisoning and called the manufacturer, Weatherford International, to find out what she might have been exposed to. Even the doctor could not obtain full information about the chemicals she had been exposed to.

Without full information, it is impossible for regulators to control dangers or for us to know about the toxic substances we are exposed to, nor to recognize the link between the pollution and the illnesses and disabilities toxic chemicals are causing.

Make your voice count.

Read more about the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Campaign at www.saferchemicals.org. Mass PTA urges its members to share this information and to get involved as individuals and as units. Let your elected officials know you want them to be a leader into a new era of safer chemicals and healthy families.

For more background on this problem, see Bill Moyer's program, "Trade Secrets" or to read more on MA Safe Chemical Act 2010 click here.

More information: Ellie Goldberg, 617-965-9637, VP Legislation, Mass PTA,

For Immediate Release January 5, 2010
Massachusetts PTA joins Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Campaign.
Contact: Ellie Goldberg, VP Legislation, Mass PTA This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 617 965-963.