The following post is from Katie of Kitchen Stewardship:
source: Aberdeen Proving Ground
Did you know that of the 84,000 or so chemicals floating around the American marketplace, the EPA only has “sufficient health and safety information” on 200 of them?
The New York Times recently poked fun at parents who make their own cleaning supplies from baking soda just to try to avoid toxins, and although they also included helpful information on the pervasiveness of toxic chemicals in our world, Andy Igrejas is afraid the public will miss the point: that chemicals are making us sick, and the government has little to do with making the situation better.
In classic backwards logic, the 35-year-old law governing chemicals gives them the same amount of credit and leeway as human beings: innocent until proven guilty. Only they forget to take any of them to court to make sure they didn’t commit any crimes or harm any citizens. If a certain chemical is proven to be harmful, the law makes it very difficult for government agencies to restrict its use.
It’s time for a change.
