Chairman Frank Smizik
Joint Committee on Environment,
Natural Resources & Agriculture
State House, Room 473F
Boston, MA 02133
Chairwoman Pamela Resor
Joint Committee on Environment,
Natural Resources & Agriculture
State House, Room, 410
Boston, MA 02133
June 11, 2007
Dear Chairman Smizik, Chairwoman Resor and members of the
Committee,
I am writing on behalf of Environment Massachusetts to urge the committee to
give H-783 and S-558, An Act for a Healthy Massachusetts: Safer Alternatives
for Toxic Chemicals (sponsored by Representative Jay Kaufman & Senator
Steven Tolman), a favorable report. Environment Massachusetts, the new home of MASSPIRG’s
environmental work, is a statewide, citizen-based, environmental advocacy
organization dedicated to protecting our air, water and open space.
More than one third of the U.S. population
suffers from chronic diseases including cancers, asthma, learning and
developmental disabilities, birth defects, diabetes, ALS and Parkinson’s
disease. Scientific evidence increasingly uncovers links between toxic
chemicals and higher rates of these diseases and disorders. Our children, with
their developing minds and bodies, are especially vulnerable. Protecting ourselves and our children from
exposure to toxic chemicals must be a top priority.
An Act for a Healthy Massachusetts
takes a pragmatic approach to the reduction of toxic chemicals used in Massachusetts by
creating a program to replace them with safer alternatives when feasible.
The Safer Alternatives bill focuses on substitution, highlighting what can be
done to make our lives safer, instead of what cannot. The reduction and
replacement of chemicals with known safer alternatives should occur alongside
risk, needs and alternative assessments of chemicals currently without known
alternatives.
We have a right to live in a
healthy environment, which sustains life and protects us from unnecessary
harms. There is simply no excuse,
rationalization or justification adequate to allow our neighborhoods, our bodies
and our children’s bodies to become polluted by unnecessary toxic chemicals.
We must be proactive in ensuring a
safe and healthy Massachusetts
for ourselves and future generations. We
urge the committee to seize this opportunity to make Massachusetts healthier and safer by
supporting An Act for a Healthy Massachusetts.
Sincerely,
Jen Baker
Advocate, Environment Massachusetts
