The State Program created to target toxic chemicals in everyday products has been renewed for another 5-years.
The names of the toxic chemicals currently being banned won’t mean much in many cases, but you’ll know the products.
“We’re looking at classes of chemicals instead of individual chemicals” says Dr Holly Davies, a Senior Toxicologist with the state department of health “It’s used in nail polish and fragrances, but we also don’t know what’s in a lot of the products cause not all of the products are labeled.”
Passed in 2019 “Safer Products for Washington” gave the department of Ecology the power to regulate toxic chemicals in consumer products.
That fast tracked the ban of some fire-retardants “The chemicals aren’t bound into the plastic matrix so they come out” Dr Davies says products like Televisions, Computers, even Blow Dryers are coated with this this stuff for safety reasons “They get into household dust and they get into people and we see widespread exposure to these compounds.”
There’s no direct connection yet, but some of these chemicals contain cancer causing carcinogens Dr Davies says, while others have been known to slow childhood development and cause birth defects.
Safter replacement chemicals make many of these bans possible, but the To-Do list is long.
Manufacturers have until 2028 to remove illegal toxic chemicals from their products.
