They’re not just in the water…chemicals are everywhere, indoors and out.
Some of you sharper minds might think you have an idea of how dangerous these toxins are. Buddy, you don’t know the half of it. Not even most of the so-called experts have a clue. None of us do…because many of these chemicals are trade secrets!
A recent report in the Washington Post shows how laws designed to help the chemical industry remain competitive have actually helped them remain highly secretive…and once again, the rest of us get the short end of this poison wand.
The newspaper told of one nurse who fell ill after treating a worker injured in a chemical spill. When her doctors called the company to find out what she had been exposed her, they wouldn’t say.
Because they didn’t have to.
Nice guys, right?
Chemical manufacturers get to hide behind the misleadingly named Toxic Substances Control Act. Rather than help control toxic substances, the 1976 law actually helps companies keep their chemicals secret.
What’d you expect from our Corporate Congress, where lobbyists get the write the laws?
This particular law requires that companies disclose the ingredients in all their chemicals to the government. But it also protects any chemical that the company thinks is important to its bottom line.
Lately, that’s all of them — in recent years, 95 percent of all notices for new chemicals — some 700 of these are filed each year — have contained secrecy requests, according to the Post.
How can you avoid this garbage? You can’t. It’s in everything, even your clothing and furniture if they’ve been treated to be flame-retardant.
But you can wake up and realize that your government isn’t working for you — it’s working for America’s biggest companies. The solution can be found at the ballot box — if you can find a clean politician.
