« Public Financing OF Elections Is Almost As Good As Free-Media Exposure In Special Session | Main | State Takes Baby Steps Toward Alternative Fuels »
August 4, 2008
Lawmakers Punted Chance to Lead Against Plastics
Monday, August 4, 2008
If you're the glass-is-half-full type, you can tell yourself that Connecticut's General Assembly paved the way for a new federal law banning toys and child-care items including pacifiers that contain a half dozen types of plastic softeners called phthalates.
But the reality is, state lawmakers caved to the plastics industry and killed a proposal last spring that would ban the plastics. During a telling news conference, a Harvard post-doc talked about emerging evidence of developmental problems in children exposed to phthalates.
Yes, the state passed a new law against lead toys. That was a no-brainer. Farther-sighted, braver state lawmakers would have included the plastics.
Sarah Uhl, coordinator for the non-profit Clean Water Action, said today that the state lead standard was important and even the ignored plastics legislation sent a message.
"By introducing a bill to phase out phthalates and by joining other states in a rigorous public discourse about the need for a phthalates ban, Connecticut helped put the writing on the wall," she said. "In the end, enough manufacturers,retailers,and members of Congress read this writing and realized that the clock was ticking on the continued use of toxic phthalates in children's products. When big manufacturers like Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us began publically announcing plans to stop using phthalates, that left the companies that actually produce these toxins- like Exxon Mobil-- to campaign against the ban. It was a close fight that many thought could not be won, but in the end the leadership of the states- and the concerned consumers in those states- drovemarket shifts and state policies that paved the way for the federal win."
Posted by Ken on August 4, 2008 5:57 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://forum.connpost.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1649
Comments
Ken Dixon I thank you so much for you poignant delivery and good sense of satire, if not pungent performance of a intuitive writer.
I see you too are not toying around with the issue of serious health issues with the use of phthalates in infant and children's products. Some legislators, choosing to become blind to evidence of children exhibiting in "this generation" already, hormone disrupting health issues associated with phthalate exposure, missed hearing a clock ticking in their favor indeed. When I personally spoke with Dr. Carl Baum, Director of Toxicology, Pediactrics, Yale. He concurs "the why wait theory" for further evidence in next generations when health evidence is already there, does not apply. Toys "R" us can see ahead and addresses the consumer, the parents, and knows in time, with knowledge, they will not reach for the 'toxic' toy for their loved ones. Brave is the marketing which protects their most important product...the children. The clock ticks also for our important product, our children with unnecessary exposure to toxic phthalates. Toy industry can squeeze the American dollar and time out of one states session, instead of using wisdom for protection, now and ahead on all levels, but this is essentially a government by the people, the parents, the consumers, the health of our generations. The states will prevail. We will not let the glass be half empty, full with the other half in floating toxins, killing them slowly by the" no brainer", lead removal only.
Thank you Ken Dixon for your fine reporting and writing.
Joyce Acebo~Raguskus
Chair Diesel Cleanup, ECC
Member: Coalition for Env. Justice
Coalition for Safe & Healthy CT
etc.
etc.
Posted by: Joyce Acebo~Raguskus at August 5, 2008 11:56 AM
Dear Ken,
Thank you for your attention to this very important issue. Recent actions banning lead at the state level and phthalates at the federal level introduce significant preventive measures in our efforts to protect and improve children's health. Hopefully there will be similar state and/or federal actions on Bisphenol A (BPA), another chemical found in plastics with equally hazardous health effects, in the near future.
Annamarie Beaulieu
Campaign Director
Connnecticut Public Health Association
Posted by: Annamarie Beaulieu at August 11, 2008 10:40 AM
