Giftig lek – Events Store

Our home is today full of dangerous toxins that can cause cancer and destroy our hormone system.

A new chemical is produced every three seconds. Prohibiting a single fabric takes up to 20 years. Lawmakers and politicians does not manage to keep up with plastic and chemical industry – and so it has been since World War II. According to the OECD industry one of the fastest developed. The global annual production of plastic approaching 300 million tons. The value of European production is about 250 billion Norwegian kroner.

Everything more would avoid products with dangerous chemicals.

At the opening of the world economic forum in Davos , Switzerland, came finally plastics and chemicals on world leaders’ agenda. Plastics, which contain large amounts of hazardous substances, is a growing problem, declared environmental foundation Ellen MacArthur Foundation report The New Plastics Economy. By 2050 it is estimated that the amount of plastic will exceed the total fish stock in the oceans.

While the authorities are considering whether they are going to prohibit certain substances, produced millions of new chemicals in laboratories. It keeps with simple math to realize that the prevailing strategy to combat dangerous chemicals is inadequate. Parallel to that it should be introduced ban on toxic substances should also require openness and transparency. If the content of various materials being made available, it will in fact have several positive effects:

1. Consumers can make informed choices. Everything more would avoid products with hazardous chemicals, to protect herself and the child. Producers must therefore explain the nature of the goods, as is already required for foodstuffs, hygiene products and medicines. This is information that can be difficult to understand for the layman, but professionals will process the information and make it comprehensible. It is not impossible to learn the names of toxins. When the paint during tunnel construction through Hallandsåsen in Sweden, there were many who quickly learned the name of the obturator Rhoca-Gil and nerve poison alkrymid. Several parents know the name of the hormone-disrupting chemical Bisphenol A, and would have gladly opted out – if they had the opportunity to do so.

Our homes and nurseries are today full of dangerous chemicals.

2. The government’s chemical control can be streamlined radically. During my nine years as director of the Swedish Chemicals Agency, we received many commissioned by the government to assess the extent of hazardous substances on the market. We conducted them, as far as we could. Unfortunately we were unable to be sufficiently specific, we had to content ourselves with report that named poisons could be found in certain items such as paint and glue. We could never prove that concrete products actually contained the dangerous chemical government wanted to control. We were unable to find specific products on the market containing poison.

The reason was simple but quite embarrassing: State authority for chemical control had no right to know what an actual product contained. Unfortunately, the situation is the same today. In a report (KemI Report 7/14) authorities had to be content with stating: “Goods which in many cases are imported as finished processed not covered by any registration requirements. The survey of goods based in this report on information from trade organizations and similar sources. “

3. Companies want to lead and sell products without known toxins, can finally get access to information that allows them to opt out of materials and goods with hazardous content. Investigators for the Swedish government, which has been tasked to assess the use of Bisphenol A, confirms this in a note (SOU 2014: 90): “It has, however, sometimes been difficult for retailers to set chemical requirements, since the knowledge of what goods containing , often deficient. “

Stop the industry right to secrecy.

Sustainable business development is hindered by a lack of transparency and information about chemicals. EU’s new chemical regulations require surely that will be accounted for especially hazardous substances. But since we are talking about a fraction of all substances on the market, 170 of 120,000, this is almost meaningless.

4. Plastic and chemical industry can improve its reputation. With transparency, the decline in confidence as the industry itself sorry, Stoggs. The industry is innovative. It has shown an amazing ability to come up with solutions we consumers have realized that we have a problem. Take the popular teflonpannene. Those who want to save on fat and release besides the food being burned. In the production of Teflon used substance that is difficult to break down, actually among the hardest industry has produced – and that is both carcinogenic and endocrine disrupters. The industry will continue to solve problems for us, but come without filling our homes with toxins.

Give us the right to know and make their own choices.

5. Industry must conduct a comprehensive clean-up, where known, dangerous, but legal ingredients are removed within the goods come to the store. Politicians longstanding slow efforts to achieve a non-toxic environment, it will appear as a faint ripple compared with the tsunami wave industry cleanup will create.

Our homes and nurseries are today full of dangerous chemicals. A review of such electronics we have at home, via public databases on Chemicals Agency’s website, resulted in a list of 75 dangerous substances. Substances that can cause cancer, damage genetic material, our fertility and our hormone system.

The most effective method for stopping the spread of poison in our homes and kindergartens, is also the simplest: Stop industry right to secrecy. Give us the right to know and make their own choices.

(Chronicle author has recently published the book “TOXIC! About Chemicals, Plastics, and our children” in Norwegian).