This should be a no brainer. Many countries in Europe have already placed a ban on harmful chemicals for all of the reasons stated in the article...if congress really wants to do something "for the children" this would be a good start.

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Do you have your priorities straight?

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Many have long known that endocrine-disrupting chemicals in various plastics can have serious health effects on children. Yet the public hasn't been informed - nor aware of how much oil goes into the millions of plastic consumer goods.

For more on the kids + plastics concerns, plus others, see: www.toxicsinfo.org/TIPS_kids.htm
Included is a link to the hilarious animated cartoon on avoiding PVC: "Sam Suds & the Case of the Poison Plastic".

By the way, if you think the contribution of plastic to petroleum usage is trivial, consider this:

Film Plastics represent 43.6% of Plastic Waste in California. As of the CIWMB’s 1999 study of California’s trash, plastic film makes up 43.6% by weight of plastic discarded. Film plastics are used to make retail bags, garbage bags, and other agricultural uses. According to the same study residences generated 40% of the plastic film in our waste stream. Californians throw away about 30 pounds per year of plastic film in their residential trash alone.

Californians use 10.8 billion plastic bags. Based on studies of the use of plastic bags in other nations, CAW estimates that Californians use about 302 disposable plastic bags per year. That’s 10.8 billion bags –enough to circle the earth 67 times.

Supermarkets in California generate 6.5 billion disposable plastic bags. About 60% of the total plastics bags used are single-use disposable supermarket bags – that’s just fewer than 6.5 billion plastic bags. Most plastic bags are too weak to just use one – many stores now automatically double bag when using plastics.

And that is just one use of plastic in one state - consider products that line the shelves of every store you enter!

Ironically, plastic was originally made from cellulose. Some are working on bio-plastics today, but the problem of the toxic plasticizers such as Bisphenol-A (BP-A) and Phthalates would still need to be solved for real sustainability.

Blessings,

Liberty Goodwin, Director
Toxics Information Project (TIP)
www.toxicsinfo.org

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Anything made from oil, coal, timber, or cotton can be made ecologically friendly with cannabis hemp. It grows without most fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides to foul our soil and water, and in climates and conditions other crops wont grow. Henry Ford built and fueled a car primarily with it. The cellulose plastic panels ten times stronger than steel. Neither he or Diesel intended to run their engines on petroleum. It is at the very minimum four times more efficient per acre than corn, kenaf, or sugar cane for ethanol production. Farming just six to eight percent of our land in hemp would satisfy our current needs for oil and gas.
Today, one new Company, Zelfo Austraila, is making plastics out of hemp, flax, and sugar cane with no other resins or glues keeping it eco-friendly and still maintaining its strength.
Currently the United States is the only major Nation not growing industrial hemp. China is now growing 40% of the worlds crop and they among others are developing new technologies for paper, plastics, textiles, fuels, plywood, cosmetics, and health foods that will keep the U.S.A. at a deficit for years. The hemp seed is also the single most nutritiously complete food source on the planet and it's fibers the longest and strongest in nature, canvas is Dutch for cannabis!

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