Toxic chemicals are in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the products we buy. Yet manufacturers of the thousands of chemicals on the market aren't required to fully test chemicals for health effects or to fully disclose toxics used in workplaces and communities, placed in products, and released to our environment. Successful federal and state right-to-know laws not only empower citizens and communities to protect themselves, but give industries a public incentive to clean up their act, and have resulted in dramatic reductions in toxic pollution and toxic chemical use.
New Report:
Brain Food: What women should know about mercury contamination in fish (4/12/01)
The Most Dangerous Toxics Released to the Environment

· Pollutants like dioxin and mercury, which are highly toxic and build up in the environment and our tissues, often go unreported in the federal right-to-know program because they are used and released in small - but hazardous - quantities.

· PIRG advocacy has resulted in EPA action to expand reporting for more than 25 chemicals, including mercury, dioxin, and lead, but other substances, like cadmium, continue to be under-reported.

· Unfortunately, the same polluting industries that stalled and weakened recent new reporting requirements for lead - notorious for its detrimental impacts on children's development - are trying to convince decision-makers to further weaken or overturn the new rules.
Chemicals in Products, Workplaces, and Communities

· The federal right-to-know program, the Toxics Release Inventory, requires a limited set of industries to report releases for a limited set of chemicals. However, we're in the dark about chemicals used in workplaces, transported through communities, and placed in products we buy.

· The PIRGs have worked with Representatives Waxman (CA) and Saxton (NJ) to introduce bipartisan right-to-know legislation requiring industries to report their use of toxic chemicals and the products that contain them. Legislation passed by Massachusetts PIRG and New Jersey PIRG has resulted in reduction in the use of toxic chemicals, reductions in toxic waste created, and reductions in pollution. The reductions have saved industries millions of dollars in raw materials and waste treatment costs.

· The legislation currently ended the last Congress with 157 cosponsors, but chemical industry opposition blocked Congress from taking action.
Take Action * Toxics Home * State PIRGs