Overview
All Pennsylvanians deserve to live in a healthy and toxic-free
environment. Unfortunately, polluters continue to pump billions of pounds of
toxic chemicals into our air, land, and water each year, many of which can
cause cancer and other severe health effects. In addition to pollution, manufacturers
are now using many of these toxic chemicals in a wide range of consumer
products from laptops to mattresses. As a result, many toxic chemicals are showing
up in unlikely places such as household dust, playgrounds, and even human breast milk. Finally,
chemical facilities that use or store dangerous amounts of highly hazardous
chemicals place Pennsylvanians at risk in the event of an
accidental or deliberate release. To address these toxic threats, we need bold policies
that replace toxic chemicals with safer alternatives, compel polluters to pay
for cleaning up past pollution, and require companies to tell us whenever they
are storing or releasing toxic chemicals or putting them in the products we
purchase.