Bettyann Sheats: Safer policies about toxic chemicals necessary

Small businesses support the phaseout of dangerous chemicals when safer alternatives are available.

No one wants to be exposed to harmful chemicals. Maine small business owners share the concern about toxic chemicals. We don’t want to use them, we don’t want to sell them and we don’t want to expose our customers to them.

Recently, more than 150 Maine business owners were surveyed about how customer concerns and current chemical policies affect their businesses. The survey found Maine small businesses overwhelmingly support stronger, safer chemical policies and the phaseout of dangerous chemicals when safer alternatives are available.

The business survey was performed by the Toxics Action Center, a nonprofit public health and environmental organization that works with communities across the state of Maine to clean up and prevent toxic pollution. The center delivered the survey report, along with 100 letters from Maine businesses urging immediate action, to the Bangor offices of Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins a few weeks ago.

I was pleased to be a part of that event. I own a remodeling business that takes me into my customers’ homes. I consider it my responsibility to ensure that the products I am using are safe for my customers. I think most Maine business owners feel the same way.

Businesses are concerned about recalls (remember Christmas 2007?) and their liability when toxic chemicals are revealed in their products.

Owners want accurate information on chemicals used in the products they sell or use.

Nearly one in three surveyed remembered customers asking directly about toxic chemicals in their products. Yet, several businesses reported that they tried but were unable to get information about potential chemical hazards of their products from manufacturers.

Recently, Snowe and Collins acknowledged the problems caused by exposure to dangerous chemicals and the need for stronger federal laws that families and businesses can count on.

Well, they can do something about it right now, in a concrete way, by co-sponsoring the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 (S. 487).

The act would do four things:

• It would require chemical companies to demonstrate that their chemicals are safe before they get used in consumer products;

• It would increase public information on chemicals and their health impacts;

• It would ensure that the EPA is using the best available science when doing research on chemicals; and

• It would support businesses that are innovating and developing safer chemicals, which would give Maine’s economy an additional boost.

The bill would modernize and strengthen the Toxic Substances Control Act, established in 1976.

Since act’s inception, only 200 of the 80,000 chemicals used in commerce have been tested for health and safety. And of those 200, only five have been restricted. For example, lead has been banned from paint (but not from children’s products). Given the body of scientific evidence, this is an abysmal record of failure.

Maine has passed and upheld the Kid-Safe Products Act, which has resulted in the Maine ban on BPA from some children’s products. Many other states are copying Maine’s approach in an effort to address this dangerous issue. But we need comprehensive, federal legislation to solve this huge, national problem.

So, I urge Sens. Snowe and Collins to support Maine families and small businesses. Give us the tools and information we need to provide safe goods and services. Support innovation and the creation of new jobs in finding, developing, producing and selling safer alternative goods. They should co-sponsor the Safe Chemicals Act.

Bettyann Sheats of Auburn is the owner of Finishing Touches Shower Doors. She has worked with legislators, parents, small business owners and the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine in the effort to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals.