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Green Newton’s Ellie Goldberg recently testified at the State House in support of four bills designed to protect children from chemical hazards.

Newton Representative Ruth Balser, a member of the Public Health Committee, said, “There was a large attendance at this long afternoon hearing. The committee was very attentive to the testimonies and interested in learning about the proposals for resolving these public health problems.  I encourage citizens to call and write the committee members to support these public health measures.

Bill S1139 would establish a list of toxic chemicals and require manufacturers of children’s products to submit annual reports.

Bill S1132 would ban certain flame retardants in children’s products and upholstered furniture and set limits on TRIS and PBDEs. (In fact, flame retardants do nothing to stop fires or save lives. They can cause cancer, birth defects and nervous system damage.)

Bill H2067 would set up a state safer products list to omit chemicals that cause asthma. The bill would not allow schools, day cares and public buildings to use unlisted cleaners.

Bill H2068 would require dry cleaners to notify customers and neighbors about the type of solvents they use.

Goldberg’s testimony included, “On behalf of your children and mine, I urge you to give a favorable report to these four bills which will result in transparency, disclosure, reporting, phasing out, tracking and restricting hazardous chemicals and practices. We cannot undo the contamination and continuous malignant exposures already in our environment and in our bodies. But we can stop it from getting worse.”  For the complete testimony go to: http://tinyurl.com/GoldbergTestimony

Ellie at hearing 7 28 15

In Good Company

Also testifying in support of the bills were representatives from Silent Spring Institute; MASSPIRG, Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition, Mass Teachers Association, Clean Water Action and others. Also Mike O’Reilly from Boston Firefighters Local 718 and Archie Gormley from the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts testified in support of the flame retardants and disclosure bills and Casey Harvell from the American Lung Association testified in support of the Safe Cleaning Products Bill.

For more information go to Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, www.healthytomorrow.org, a coalition of over 100 Massachusetts organizations working to prevent harm to human health and the environment from toxic chemicals.