Lawmakers are set to wrap up the scheduled end of the 2015 legislative session.\u00a0 Typically, this week is \u201cshow time\u201d for lawmakers \u2013 hundreds of bills are likely to be approved, many more will fail.<\/p>\n
For the second year in a row, an important bill that is under serious consideration is the \u201cToxic Chemicals in Children\u2019s Products\u201d Act.\u00a0 If approved the bill would establish a framework for identifying potentially harmful chemicals in everyday children\u2019s apparel, toys and other consumer products.\u00a0 The type of chemicals would include those likely to be a carcinogen, severely toxic or cause significant health problems.<\/p>\n
Manufacturers would be required to report their intentional use of most harmful \u201cpriority chemicals\u201d in children\u2019s products within twelve months of such listing.\u00a0 Eleven identified \u201cpriority chemicals\u201d\u2014such as lead, asbestos and benzene\u2014would be banned for use in children\u2019s products as of January 1, 2018.<\/p>\n
This legislation represents a paradigm shift over current federal and state laws that fail to prevent toxic exposures.\u00a0 It would oblige a response to the devastating health and environmental problems caused by toxic chemicals before<\/em> injuries occur.<\/p>\n This intelligent legislation proposes a preventative, science-based approach\u2014as already adopted by the European Union.\u00a0 The bill is modeled after legislation in Maine and Washington State.\u00a0 Three counties in New York \u2013 Albany, Suffolk and Westchester \u2013 have acted as well.<\/p>\n Federal law was supposed to protect public health and the environment by establishing a way to review the safety of chemicals and, if based upon that analysis a chemical was found to be toxic, ban its use in the U.S.\u00a0 Yet, after 35 years, only 200 of the nearly 83,000 chemicals produced and used in commerce have been reviewed.\u00a0 Only five have been banned.\u00a0 Chemicals such as asbestos\u2014proven to cause cancer and lung disease\u2014have not be banned.<\/p>\n Toxic chemicals are suspected of playing a role in many of the most pressing health issues, including cancer, heart disease, obesity, and children\u2019s developmental disorders.\u00a0 Moreover, getting these toxic chemicals out of children\u2019s products will protect workers from exposure, reduce overall toxics in the environment and diminish toxic chemicals sent to landfills, recycling programs and incinerators.<\/p>\n Clearly, there needs to be a better way to protect children and the environment.<\/p>\n More than fifty years ago, President Kennedy laid out the cornerstones of modern consumer protection.\u00a0 President Kennedy\u2019s 1962 Consumer Bill of Rights was hailed as opening a new era in consumer protection.\u00a0 These principles continue to be relevant and vital in 2015.\u00a0 Included among these were three key principles:<\/p>\n These rights are so reasonable and so fundamental as to be beyond dispute.\u00a0 They complement each other and ensure that the other rights are meaningful and realized.\u00a0 If there is no choice, meaningful information becomes moot; if there is choice, but no meaningful information, consumer choice is illusory.\u00a0 And if a product is unsafe, information and choice are of little benefit.<\/p>\n Parents and other caregivers cannot be expected to sample and laboratory test each product for toxic chemicals before a purchase.\u00a0 And not every parent can afford or find products that are guaranteed to be \u201ctoxic free\u201d\u2014if such products exist at all.<\/p>\n Ensuring that children\u2019s products are safe is not only an appropriate role for government; it is an essential role for government.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n The legislature has begun to act.\u00a0 The Assembly has passed legislation that addresses this problem and there is significant support in the state Senate.\u00a0 Of the 63 Senators, 42 of them are now sponsors<\/em> of the bill; including a Republican lead sponsor.\u00a0 Governor Cuomo has stated that he supports this legislation and that is a priority for him this session.\u00a0 Yet, so far, the Senate leadership has blocked the bill from consideration.<\/p>\n Clearly, with such overwhelming support, this important public health measure could become law this week.\u00a0 It is now up to the overwhelming number of Senators to make sure that this legislation gets approved and sent to the governor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lawmakers are set to wrap up the scheduled end of the 2015 legislative session.\u00a0 Typically, this week is \u201cshow time\u201d for lawmakers \u2013 hundreds of bills are likely to be approved, many more will fail. For the second year in a row, an important bill that is under serious consideration is the \u201cToxic Chemicals in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1487"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1489,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions\/1489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n