Thursday, May 19, 2011

NGOs to Deliver Petition to White House Today to Call for Leadership on Chemicals

A coalition of NGOs and advocates for health and environmental safety are delivering a petition today to the White House calling for President Obama to implement last years findings by the President’s Cancer Panel.  Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families is a coalition of more than 100 organizations and "represents more than 11 million individuals and includes parents, health professionals, advocates for people with learning and developmental disabilities, reproductive health advocates, environmentalists and businesses from across the nation."  The petition has been signed by more than 70,000 people according to the group, and calls for strengthening of both the "failed" 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the "ineffective" 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act (FDCA).  According to the petition:


Every minute, at least one American will die from cancer. What is particularly frightening about this statistic is that, contrary to general assumption, many of these cancers could have been prevented.

The petition urges "the President to 'most strongly use the power of your office' to eliminate human exposure to cancer-causing chemicals."  It goes on to say:


By setting the course for a national cancer prevention strategy that includes eliminating the use of cancer-causing chemicals, the President can reverse decades of failed policies that have allowed those chemicals to contaminate our lives and endanger our health.

The petition can be viewed on the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families web site.

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