Overview

All Americans 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, products like cigarettes increase the threat to everyone’s health. Many toxic chemicals are showing up in unlikely places such as household dust and even human breast milk. Finally, chemical facilities that use or store dangerous amounts of highly hazardous chemicals place literally millions of Americans 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.

Needless to say, the chemical industry’s opposition to such measures has been formidable. While states are starting to take action on toxic chemicals, the industry has used its powerful lobby to block efforts at national reform.

To counter these powerful interests, Illinois PIRG is working to pass legislation to address these threats and ban the worst toxic chemicals.