Low on cleaning supplies, and short on time, I dashed into the super market the other day hoping to stock up on a few scrubs and sprays. If only it were that simple. After sifting through an alphabet soup of toxic chemicals and reading encyclopedic amounts of text just to get a sink cleaner, I came to two conclusions:

1) Tomorrow is a much better day to clean. (A few weeks worth of tomorrows later, my kitchen floor might not agree…)

2) I’m tired of toxic chemicals.

In fact, I’m so sick and tired of toxic chemicals and their side effects and their fumes and their health impacts that I’ve had enough. And, unlike cleaning, tomorrow is not a better day to clean up our toxics legislation.

MomsRising is gearing up to get co-sponsors for legislation to protect families from toxic chemicals that harm our health and the environment. Illinois Moms: Your new Senator Mark Kirk needs to hear that you're tired of toxic chemicals. Will you contact him today?

http://action.momsrising.org/letter/TSCAIL2/

In the 34 years since the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA) passed, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered chemical companies to test only 200 chemicals out of the 80,000 chemicals in commerce and has restricted some uses of only 5 toxic substances.  With over 80,000 chemicals in commerce, this means that many of the chemicals we encounter every day have never been tested for safety. (1)

Our broken chemical screening system puts our families at risk for early puberty, cancer, learning disabilities, infertility, and more. We can’t protect our kids and families from toxics without updating the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act (TSCA). (2)

But to fix this, we need your help.

We can’t protect our kids and families from toxics without updating legislation like the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Senator Kirk needs to hear about the frustrations facing Illinois parents just like you, and how important it is to update TSCA.

http://action.momsrising.org/letter/TSCAIL2/

The TSCA update would require chemical manufacturers to provide basic health and safety information for all chemicals as a condition for staying in or entering the marketplace. It would also, for the first time, make that information public.

Let Senator Kirk know that Illinois moms are fed up with toxic chemicals! Ask Senator Kirk to co-sponsor toxics legislation that protects Illinois families!

http://action.momsrising.org/letter/TSCAIL2/

Please forward this link to your friends and families in Illinois so they can take action too!

Here's that action link again so you have it handy:

http://action.momsrising.org/letter/TSCAIL2/

(1) "What is TSCA?" from Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families:  http://www.saferchemicals.org/resources/tsca.html

(2) MomsRising Environmental Health Page: http://www.momsrising.org/environmentalHealth