As a mother of two, I’m constantly aware of the dangers surrounding my children — bustling streets and speedy cars, sharp objects in the kitchen, bathtubs filled a bit too high. Although scary, I know and recognize these threats. I can take reliable steps to keep my girls safe.
As a longtime advocate for safer chemical policies, I am also privy to many less obvious dangers my daughters and other children face, such as a class of toxic chemicals called organohalogen flame retardants. Sadly, many parents are not. And with the shopping frenzy of the holidays well underway, I am reminded of this threat.
Found in children’s products, electronics, mattresses and home furniture, exposure to organohalogens has been associated with serious health problems. Those include cancer, reduced sperm count, increased time to pregnancy, decreased IQ in children, impaired memory, learning deficits, hyperactivity, hormone disruption and lowered immunity. Children are especially vulnerable, and I know to truly keep them safe, parents like me need help.
That’s why I was thrilled to learn the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is taking action. In response to a petition Earthjustice and the Consumer Federation of America submitted in June 2015, the commission issued an official warning to consumers, especially pregnant women and young children, to avoid products that contain these flame retardants. They called on manufacturers to eliminate these chemicals and for retailers to obtain assurances from suppliers that products do not contain organohalogens.
Most importantly, they are also beginning the rulemaking process to ban these chemicals entirely.
Suddenly, however, all of this progress is in jeopardy because of who President Donald Trump has nominated to join the commission — Dana Baiocco. She has built her legal career defending corporations in lawsuits accusing them of selling defective or dangerous products that have either severely injured or killed consumers.
The commission, which sets federal regulations, develops safety standards and conducts research into product-related illnesses and injury, serves as one of our strongest bulwarks against unscrupulous corporations and their harmful products. With Baiocco on the commission — someone whose clients include big tobacco and predatory financial firms — how can we trust that the commissioners will carry out their tasks with the safety of consumers, as opposed to powerful corporations, as their primary concern? We can’t. That’s why every senator needs to vote no on her nomination.
Blocking Baiocco’s nomination is crucial. One of the biggest decisions she could make as a commissioner is whether to implement the ban on flame retardants that the commission voted to move forward.
An invisible menace, organohalogen flame retardants seep into the dust and air our children breathe. Any time someone sits on a sofa or lays a baby down on a crib mattress, they migrate into the air and dust. As a result, more than 97 percent of U.S. residents have measurable quantities of these poisonous chemicals in their blood.
Children are particularly at-risk because they come into greater contact with household dust than adults. Studies show that children, whose developing brains and reproductive organs are most vulnerable, have levels three to five times higher than their parents. To make matters worse, studies show that these chemicals don’t even provide meaningful protection against fires.
Although no rule compels manufacturers to use these chemicals in their products, no federal law yet precludes their use, either. We need such rules. As a mom I know that without them, my daughter and millions of other children will continue to be at risk.
I therefore again urge all our senators to vote no on Baiocco’s nomination. We cannot put our children’s safety in the hands of someone known to favor the rights of corporations over the lives of consumers, especially the youngest and most vulnerable.
Megan Scott is a mother and chemical safety advocate who helped secure legislation in Maine to make it the first state to ban all chemical flame retardants in upholstered furniture.
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