Actress and mother Jennifer Beals, star of Showtime’s “The L Word” and the 1980’s movie “Flashdance,” joined Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families in Washington, D.C. this week to urge Congress to pass the Safe Chemicals Act.
The Safe Chemicals Act would put common-sense limits on the amount of harmful chemicals allowed in various products. While there are supposedly laws in place to regulate this already, there are no practical checkpoints in place to make sure the laws are abided by. In fact, the prevalence of certain illnesses with direct links to toxic chemicals has only increased in the past couple of decades.
Beals was also joined by hundreds of parents and a stroller brigade to demand that Congress take action on cancer-causing chemicals, many of which have been found in common consumer products ranging from household cleaners to children’s products.
Beals says she got involved in the fight against toxic chemicals in 2005, the year her daughter was born. She learned about all the toxic chemicals in children’s toys, bedding, and other baby items. At a certain point, she says she got tired of sifting through the Internet, trying to figure out what products were safe and what wasn’t safe.
According to Beals, the chemical industry would argue that tighter regulations would impede their economic growth. But Beals thinks that with all of the brain power that is within the chemical industry, that they could use that intelligence and that acumen to create safer chemicals without impeding their profit margin. We couldn’t agree more!
Way to go, Jennifer! It’s nice to know that the movement toward healthy, green, nontoxic cleaning has such great support.
For tips on how to create your own non-toxic cleaners, check out the rest of our blog!
