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Showing posts with label Chemical substance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chemical substance. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Reset the Clock on Cancer: Tell the Senate to Fix Our Chemical Laws

Today's post was shared by Ban Asbestos Network and comes from www.huffingtonpost.com


What would you do to prevent someone you love from getting breast cancer? To keep your sister, mother, daughter or son safe from this devastating disease that has touched millions of people? The greatest opportunity to prevent breast cancer is identifying and eliminating the environmental causes of the disease, including exposures to toxic chemicals.

Hope that we can change the course of cancer for future generations is the most compelling reason why all of us should tell our senators to fix our broken chemical system that prohibits? women -- and all of us -- from living healthy lives.

Toxic chemicals, found in everything from cleaners to furniture to plastics, endlessly bombard our bodies and take a toll on our health. A strong and rapidly growing consensus from the scientific community has determined that chemicals in everyday products are linked to diseases and disorders that persist or are on the rise in the population, including breast cancer, infertility, asthma and more.

This week Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is convening a full-day hearing with experts in public health about how to fix our broken chemicals system. The failure of the law governing chemicals, the Toxic Substances Control Act, (TSCA) stems from a number of factors, including the very basic flaw that chemicals don't have to be proven safe first before they are brought to market. Any meaningful reform of TSCA must shift the burden of proof to industry to demonstrate the safety of the chemicals they...
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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Stand Up For Safer Chemicals

Today's post was shared by Linda Reinstein and comes from www.thepetitionsite.com

America's chemicals policy is badly broken. Hundreds of toxic chemicals in our sofas, laundry detergents and other household products have been linked to cancer, infertility, autism, and asthma. Thousands more chemicals have never been assessed or required to be tested for safety.
But we have the opportunity to protect ourselves. The bipartisan Chemical Safety Improvement Act offers a path toward critically needed reforms.
Take Action: Ask your Members of Congress to support improving and moving the Chemical Safety Improvement Act.
Dear Congress,
I am writing today to urge you to help improve and move the Chemical Safety Improvement Act.
Because of deficiencies in the 37-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act, the vast majority of the tens of thousands chemicals in use in the United States today have never been tested for their toxicity to humans or the environment. I am deeply concerned about potential impacts of chemicals on my health and the health of my family, but under the current system, adequate chemical safety information is not available to regulatory agencies or consumers. We need reform now.
The bipartisan Chemical Safety Improvement Act is a remarkable opportunity to fix our broken law. The bill would give the Environmental Protection Agency critical tools it needs to address the risks chemicals pose to health. For instance, the bill would require, for the first time, that the safety of all chemicals in active commerce be...
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Saturday, October 26, 2013

OSHA Releases New Resources to Help Employers Protect Workers from Hazardous Chemicals

Today's post was shared by US Labor Department and comes from social.dol.gov
StepsforTransitioning safer chemicals
StepsforTransitioning safer chemicals
From steel mills to hospitals, from construction sites to nail salons, hazardous chemical exposure is a serious concern for countless employers and workers in many, many industries, in every part of this nation.
American workers use thousands of chemicals every day. And every year, tens of thousands of workers are made sick or die from occupational exposures to hazardous chemicals.
Many people think that the workplace exposure standards set by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration protect workers from the more hazardous of these chemicals, but the truth is that, for many of these chemicals, OSHA’s standards are out-of-date or inadequately protective. Even more, many chemicals are not covered by a specific OSHA regulation.
We recognize this and are developing new ways to approach the problem of workplace exposure to hazardous substances.
To help keep workers safe, OSHA recently launched two new chemical safety resources. The Transitioning to Safer Chemicals Online Toolkit provides employers and workers with information, methods, tools and guidance in eliminating hazardous chemicals or using safer chemical substitutions in the workplace. We know that the most efficient and effective way to protect workers from hazardous chemicals is by eliminating or replacing these chemicals with safer alternatives, and this should be done whenever possible.  The online toolkit is a convenient, step-by-step...
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Sunday, October 20, 2013

Choosing Chemical Hand Protection

There has been a shift in manufacturing operations, creating an even greater need for proper hand protection. Within the last 10 years, robotics and automated processes have taken over much of the handling, pouring and manipulation of hazardous chemicals in the industrial workplace. However, the risk of harm to workers' hands has not diminished.
In fact, this passive attitude toward hand protection from workplace chemicals may contribute to the major threat of hand injury. Users are not as eager to protect themselves, relying on machines to do this for them. In addition, workers often do not use the protective equipment that the specific task requires.
To further magnify the problem, the chemical retains its characteristics whether exposure comes from outright submersion or an incidental splash. Any skin contact – whether from a splash or from residual chemicals – can result in chemical burns. That exposure remains in almost every work environment where chemicals are used. At the same time, many jobs still require that workers pour chemicals into containers, apply chemicals manually, mix chemicals or transport chemicals and deal with accidental leakage on a daily basis.
For all of these reasons, it is essential that users don the proper protection, as there isn't a single glove that protects against the thousands of chemicals and chemical combinations to which workers may come in contact.
With the magnitude of...
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