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Send a letter to the editor
of your local paper
Sample Letter
Dear (Senator or Representative) ________________________
I am writing to ask you to support broad expansion
of the existing toxics release Right-to-Know law and better
labeling of
consumer products.
Current laws require the reporting of less than 1% of the
estimated 85,000 chemicals in use today. We need to protect
and expand the public’s right to know about any and all hazardous
materials that are being released into the environment
regardless of their type or the quantities involved. To that end, I ask that you sponsor or support new Right-to-Know
legislation that would require:
• Full reporting about all toxic chemicals and materials transported through our neighborhoods; produced, used
and stored in the workplace; contained in consumer products; and released into the environment.
• Full reporting by all industries engaged in the production, transportation, handling or use of toxic materials
of both the specific materials and substances themselves and the quantities used.
• Industries to inform parents if foods or products contain chemicals that may cause cancer, reproductive,
endocrinological, or neurological harm, or contain genetically modified ingredients.
I also ask you support labeling laws for all consumer products, including cleaning and personal care products, that would
require companies to clearly list all ingredients they contain. I have a fundamental right to know about all the potentially
toxic materials in my community, my workplace, my home, and my body. I hope you will work to protect this right by
making expanded Right-to-Know legislation a high priority in the current session of Congress.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME
You can find a list of Representatives on this page
Save Our Environment Organization
http://www.saveourenvironment.org/about.html
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This information is taken directly from The Seventh Generation PDF File. I have gotten permission to print it here and share it with you all.
http://www.seventhgeneration.com/atf/cf/%7BC853CD68-F03B-409A-9B26-BBF81D0C3BD9%7D/1458_0.pdf
We Have The Right To know
about toxic pollution. The law requires manufacturing
companies to publicly report releases of 667 chemicals and
chemical categories, but even so not all industries have to file
these reports, and the number of chemicals for which
reporting is required represents less than 1% of the full
picture. What about the other 99% of the chemicals being
used, entering the environment, and putting our health at
risk?
We have a right to know about these and, indeed, about
everything that goes into our air, our water, our soil, our food,
our household products, and our bodies.
Industry opposition
Despite their feel-good ads on TV, chemical, food, and
consumer products companies have consistently denied our
right to know the truth about these things and have fought
Right-to-Know laws at every turn and at every governmental
level from town halls to the halls of Congress. Since 1989,
anti-Right-to-Know industries have contributed over $68
million to political candidates. Nearly 50% of this money
came from the chemical industry.
The chemical industry has not restricted its activities to
campaign contributions. It’s also backed legislation that
would scrap existing requirements for up to 90% of the toxic
chemicals now reported under the Community Right-to-
Know Act.
These same polluters have also sought to weaken
existing Right-to-Know programs by consistently fighting to
cut EPA funding for them from federal budgets.
In recent
years, the EPA has collected public documents for use in
the preparation of congressional bills that would seek to
add significant new sources of toxic pollution to existing
Right-to-Know laws, including hazardous waster incinerators,
the mining industries, and utilities.
Polluters have worked
overtime to block such expansions. The Chemical
Manufacturers’ Association even sued the EPA in an attempt
to prevent efforts to increase the number of toxic chemicals
that are reported to the public.
Industry Claims
“This information serves no useful purpose.”
Guy D. Tenini,
DuPont Dow Elastomers
“[T]he addition of materials accounting information
to the Toxic Releases Inventory will result in
substantial costs to our facility...”
Franklin R. Wheeler,
Texaco Refining & Marketing, Inc.
“Confidential business information
can be seriously jeopardized.”
Craig R. Doolittle & Susan E. Taylor,
The Dow Chemical Company
“Our experience is that the current TRI data is not
well understood and more data would only
further confuse the public.”
Geoffrey L. Oberhause, Colorite Polymers
Turning the tide
We disagree and believe that the existing Community Rightto-
Know laws should not only be protected from these and
other attacks but expanded to include:
Full Disclosure Polluters must inform the public about all
of the chemicals they use and release into the environment.
No Loopholes Polluting industries like mining, incinerators
and utilities should not be exempt from Right-to-Know rules.
Toxics Use Reporting Industries should be required to report
all their chemical use and any possible exposure to chemicals
in the workplace, in transport through communities, in
consumer products and via disposal into our environment.
Warning Labels Food and other products containing
potentially toxic and/or genetically modified ingredients
should have clear warning labels so consumers can make
informed choices about the things to which they expose
their families.
What you can do
Nearly 20 years after the passage of the original Right-to-
Know Act, the public still only has access to information
about less than 1% of the chemicals being used today, and
many industries remain exempt from reporting their releases
of even this limited number of chemicals. In addition, labels
on food, personal care, cleaners, and other consumer products
remain incomplete and inadequate.
In an attempt to remedy these problems, Right-to-Know
legislation of various types is continually being introduced in
both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives that
addresses our inherent right to know what’s being put in our
environment, and our food and other products. These bills are
invariably sent to committee where industry lobbying succeeds
in killing them for the session.
What’s needed to counter these influences is some lobbying of
our own. To ensure that polluters don’t continue to block
Right-to-Know expansions:
• Please send letters to your congressional delegation
asking them to support or sponsor legislation that would
expand current Right-to-Know regulations to encompass
all toxic substances regardless of their type or production
amounts, and all industries that use or release them. Ask
them to require complete and accurate labeling of foods
and other products.
Coming Clean Network of Environmentalyy Health focused non profits
You can go to this site to take more action!
http://www.come-clean.org/aboutus.htm
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