Disclaimer: This post is a part of a sponsored awareness program and campaign by Seventh Generation to raise awareness and demand change to the Toxic Substances Control Act by April 30, 2014. All the research for this post was provided by Seventh Generation but all the views below are my own.
As a mom, advocate and someone who cares deeply about our planet, I have joined an exciting new campaign sponsored by Seventh Generation, a leading producer and distributor of environmentally-safe household products, to raise awareness about the hundreds of toxic chemicals in our products that are hurting our families and our world.
Toxic chemicals are a great concern of mine. I take pride in the fact that I read product labels carefully and always try to buy environmentally friendly and safe products to use in my home. This applies to every product I by: Food, household products and toiletries such as shampoo, conditioner and soap. I honestly thought I was doing a good job by keeping nasty, toxic chemicals out of my body, my families bodies and the environment.
Yet like most consumers, I was wrong. I was unaware that of the 85,000 synthetic chemicals introduced into the American market since the Toxic Substances Control Act was passed in 1976, only a mere 10% of them have required testing by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). Therefore, that means thousands of synthetic chemicals are currently being used in our products that we have no idea whether or not they are safe to our bodies and our planet.
Take a look under your sink and read the labels of your cleaning supplies? Do you know what is in them? Do you know what impact it is having on your health or the planet? If not, then keep reading.
What does this mean?*
More than 80,000 chemicals available in the United States have never been fully tested for their toxic effects on our health and environment. The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was passed in 1976, and unlike other major environmental laws, has never been updated. As it currently stands, TSCA is a broken law. As a result, tens of thousands of potentially harmful chemicals continue to be used in the marketplace since the 1970’s without proper testing and without disclosure by the companies that produce them.
TSCA makes it nearly impossible for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take regulatory action against dangerous chemicals, even those that are known to cause cancer or other serious health effects. When TSCA became law in 1976, the goal was to ensure the safety of chemicals from manufacture to use and disposal. But weaknesses in the law have left the EPA largely unable to act on known health dangers or require testing on specific chemicals that may be unsafe. Other laws, such as those setting air, water, and workplace safety standards, do not adequately regulate exposure to most chemicals, nor do they address the hazards a chemical may pose over its lifecycle.
(*Source of above content on background of TSCA: Seventh Generation. For further research visit this link The National Resources Defense Counsel).
Scientists have linked exposure to toxic chemicals to many health risks such as Cancer, Alzheimer’s, learning disabilities, asthma, birth defects and various reproductive problems.
It is outrageous and something must be done to fight toxins in our products.
That is where Seventh Generation and the American people collectively as a group come along. Seventh Generation is working to push reform to the Toxic Substances Control Act which would have all of these chemical studied, evaluated and tested. Yet we need help to get the ball rolling now.
How can we fight this and create change?
For all American citizens, we can demand that Congress reevaluates the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for the first time since 1976.
We need 100,000 signatures to stand up for safer chemicals by April 30, 2014. Here is how you can help fight toxins and push Congress to act:
- Visit fighttoxins.com
- Sign your name.
- Encourage all your friends and family here in the US to do the same. All we need is 100,000 signatures to get Congress to act and change necessary laws.
- Follow #FightToxins on all social media to spread the word.
Then smile knowing that just by adding your name to the petition, you are using your right and voice to fight harmful toxins in our products Think of the difference you can make!
You too can become a Toxin Freedom Fighter like me and help protect those of who we love most.
And of course of lovely planet.
so very scary, and here i was drinking a semi-healthy bottled juice drink and out of habit, checked the label a few weeks ago. i almost spit the drink across the street – aspartame was wedged in about fourth place in five or six ingredients.. when i got home, i found an old bottle from december, and aspartame was not in there.. shame on the company!
why ruin a good fruit drink w/chemicals especially a nuerotoxin?
Yes so true! I get so incredibly angry when I think about all the bad ingredients in everything….food, products, etc. I strongly believe that high frustose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils and all the other terrible additives/preservatives are very very bad for people. Look at our obesity problem in the US. Cheap food with bad ingredients sells and so many people aren’t aware of what the ingredients are or mean, me included. It drives me crazy that big businesses can get away with it. Thus I’m always happy when campaigns like this one start to demand change. You don’t have to use Seventh Generation products. Even just water and vinegar is an easy, natural, safe and effective way to clean. The list goes on and on.
ha, and plain lemon goes so far in culinary options.. and is so much more refreshing than the artificial tastes from prepackaged items..
I get concerned when a commercial company like Seventh Generation run a campaign to smear their rivals, you only have their word that the chemicals that are in their rivals are bad for you and the environment.
Yes it is indeed something to worry about. I did my homework though before accepting to write this post. As I mentioned in the post, this is the link that discusses the toxins and it is not from the company: For further research visit this link The National Resources Defense Counsel). Link is inside my post. I agree that you must be careful as companies can benefit. However when you read the report in the law and the toxins I believe it overweighs the benefits to Seventh Generation and will help us all have better safer products if the law is changed. It will make all Seventh Generations competitors include safe products and you as a consumer will still have the choice. If companies didn’t raise awareness then the bigger ones that are using potentially unsafe ingredients would continue to do so.
Yes its a valiant effort on your part but this is the world of multi million dollar deals dark rooms by faceless people who are slipped back handers to change a report. Words like ‘potentially’ and ‘may cause’ is a million dollars away from ‘it will do’ They say it about sugar and salt, sugar has been around longer than humans, Salt was used to pay the Roman Centurion and was used as currency by the Incas it never did them any harm.
Its the same with organic food, it has been said in a report by major non organic food producers that organic food is no different than mass produced, this all falls down to rainfall and the contamination held within every drop that falls on the organic as well as the non organic.
All companies have their secrets from KFC, Coke Cola, Pepsi all the way down to the local printers I do graphic design work for, secrets which make their products special and they cannot share with the rest of the world otherwise what is the point. Governments know this so that is why they don’t have to declare on the packaging.
We live in a very hush hush world whether its a planet loving organic company or the strongest cleaning company, they all have to pass stringent tests, even disposing of the waste products or they will not get a licence. So just because a company tells its public one thing, its telling its share holders another.
I will never believe big business as the main point of all business is to make money and caring about the world is a great selling point, had you buy it! 🙂
We said! This is how I feel too. However, in this case even if it is a business initiating that the Toxin Act be reviewed, I still do support the effort, regardless of who is in charge of initiating it. I am angry that so many companies hid what is inside their products such as GMOs, and other scientific names for chemicals. It drives me mad! So I support this initiative to at least have Congress review the act that has not been reviewed since 1976 and test the 80,000 chemicals to ensure they are safe.
I think there are way too many companies out there just trying to make money. Look at Subway and how they had chemicals used to produce plastic in their breads! No one would have known about it if it wasn’t for a blogger that advocated, got a petition out and forced Subway to change.
So I feel strongly that if there is junk in our products and food, we need to fight for it especially against the greedy big businesses who will always be so.
In this case, regardless whether or not it is being initiated by a company, does not necessarily bother me if the law is changed and these chemicals that have never been tested are. If they are then given the green light to being safe, then I’ll be happy. But they at least must be tested.
Thanks for getting me thinking!!!! Love the conversation.
It is a pleasant conversation, after giving up work due to illness I don’t get many adult conversations lol But azodicarbonamide is an extremely common bread ingredient that is fully approved and recognized as safe by the FDA now who do you go to now if the FDA is approving ingredients as safe even though they have been used to make your shoe soles stretchy. If you cannot trust the FDA who can you trust?……….someone in the FDA taking back handers?
While I was doing my degree I worked at a factory that made pies, Forfar bridies (which is folded pasty stuffed with mince and particular to Forfar) battered sausages, white puddings (which is suet, & oatmeal like a large sausage) and being in Scotland, Haggis. One of my jobs was to supervise the battered pudding frier and mix the batter which came in large 10kg bags as a powder, I would empty a bag into a mixer and add water. One day I opened a new bag and poured it in to the mixing bowl and started the mixer ready to add the water and I saw a tail which was attached to half a mouse, I dumped the mix and reported it to the boss who nearly fired me for wasting the mix, he said it would be ‘sterilised’ in the hot oil.
I left soon after, now that goes on in a food factory and you worry what goes into your washing up liquid.
You can complain, go on marches and protest all you want but if the guy or girl on the factory floor is told to ignore good practices then it is not going to do a dammed bit of good……..btw if you want to know what is in Haggis just ask 🙂
I actually don’t trust the FDA too well. Maybe I’m bitter but both my parents have had cancer and I just don’t trust a lot of garbage that is included in our foods and products. Best is to eat as less processed food as possible that you prepare yourself. I try my best but it isn’t easy. 🙂 as for your story I am sure that stuff happens all the time! I have heard of haggis but would never try it! Doesn’t sound too good!
I never eat processed foods but that’s because I was brought up as a child on sea food, my uncles were deep sea fishermen, my father was a fish dock worker so seafood was in abundance, even after I was married it was and as it is present day freshly produced foods.
But there is high unemployment, a great lack of money and time as the world gets faster and faster and its become easier to put a ready meal in the microwave than it is to stand for 30 minutes making a meal on tired feet. We have an electric crock pot/slow cooker and we make many meals in that, but again I am home a lot to organise that.
In Scotland there is a great tradition especially with the older generation a butchers shop is a must as they will buy the Sunday roast, hough to make soup, mince for Mince ‘nd Tatties, chicken which the bones would be kept for soup and cold meat for week day sandwiches.
My wife makes soup once a week and we normally have it with a home made rice pudding on a Sunday as it doesn’t take long to put together so we can go out for the day.
These traditions are being taken over by the quick solution meals and the supermarkets dedicated to frozen fast foods and girls are no longer shown how to cook by the grandmother as the families move a round the country looking for work or a better life and we have experience of this because my son and his children are 500 miles away, when the girls come to stay we cook with them and at least teach them some traditions.
Haggis is great its been eaten for hundreds of years and it is said to have originated in where Germany is now, it uses all what is left liver, lites(lungs) suet (fat from around the intestines) salt and pepper, oatmeal and all stuffed into a sheeps stomach tied at both ends and boiled…….eaten with tatties and neep (potatoes and turnip/swede) and followed by Dumpling suet, flour, fruit and peel then wrapped in a wet cloth which has been covered in flour tied at the top and cooked in water for 2-3 hours. The trick is to keep it dry…….eaten with fresh cream.
Enjoy 🙂
I have made the decision to make as many of my own products as possible, with no chemicals. This ranges from shampoo, lotions, moisturizers, liquid hand soap, deodorant, toothpaste, laundry detergent, etc, etc. Since there are many things we have no control over; i.e. the air we breathe, I want to do what I can to make those products I do have control over as green/clean as possible. I have saved lots of money, am introducing less plastic into the environment as I recycle my containers, and have reduced the amount of chemicals into our systems. Life is good! 🙂
I can’t remember the last time I’ve eaten processed foods. One good thing about living on a small tropical island is that we have to grow our own food. There are no fast food restaurants, and it’s difficult to find canned foods in tiny grocery stores. I don’t even own a can opener. Because we can’t buy very many packaged foods, we hardly have any garbage. We don’t use any pesticides on our garden, mainly because we have free-range chickens and cats. We use a Neem spray from our Neem trees to spray on our veggies in the garden to keep the pests away. Very few people have dementia here. I often think it is because they don’t eat processed foods. I’ve been researching dementia because my mother is in the middle stage of dementia. It’s a horrible disease and I think that one cause may be the storing of toxic chemicals in the body from our food. Thanks for bringing an awareness to Toxic Freedom Fighters, Nicole.