Feature story - 4 October, 2005
More big brands have committed to remove toxic chemicals from their products in our campaign against toxic pollution. Electronics giant Motorola and health and body care companies L'Occitane, Melvitacosm and Alqvimia are the latest companies to drop the most toxic chemicals from their products.
Girl on trampoline in her garden overseen by a huge chemicals plant. Will European politicians implement strong chemical law to protect people's health or instead favour the profits of the chemical industry?
Motorola featured in our previous
toxic tech test actionand received thousands of emails from
concerned citizens requesting itremoves toxic chemicals from its
products. Melvitacosm produces theMelvita's Iris Blue perfume that
was shown to have high levels of atoxic chemical in our
valentine day perfume tests.These companies join Samsung,
Nokia, Adidas, Reebok, H&M, Chiccotoys and others in adopting a
precautionary approach to end the use ofchemicals of concern in
their products. Discover the companies takingpositive steps in our
toxic free catwalk.
Update 22 May 2006: US mobile phone company Motorola has backtracked on a promise to removetoxic chemicals from its products. While competitors like Sony Ericssonand Nokia are living up to their commitments to remove toxic chemicals,Motorola is not answering the call to clean up.
Why are chemicals in products important?
Many chemicals found in everyday products are now common
environmentalpollutants and are found in animals and humans. Almost
everyone hasdozens of man-made chemicals in their body; the effects
of thesechemical cocktails on our health are unknown.
While these voluntary company measures are good news, other
companieswill never change unless the law forces them to. Only then
will thesetoxic chemicals be fully phased out and substituted with
saferalternatives.
What about those laws?
Current regulation of chemicals is weak and inadequate. Toxic
chemicalsare found from the Arctic to the Alps. The European Union
(EU) isdrafting new chemical law that would set a world standard,
but to beeffective the new law must identify all hazardous
chemicals and requiretheir substitution with safer
alternatives.
Chemical contamination? No Thanks!
While better chemical regulation should be welcomed by all, it
is underattack from predictable quarters. The chemical industry has
beenscare-mongering with exaggerated claims of job losses and
decliningprofits.It has also recruited dirty industry's best
friend, the BushAdministration, to threaten the EU with a World
Trade Organisationlawsuit if it dares to try and cut toxic
pollution.
The best way to counter inaccurate industry lobbying is to have
othercompanies demonstrate that they can do without toxic
chemicals. It remains to beseen if European members of parliament
will side with the people andprogressive companies by voting for
strong chemical law. Or will theyprefer the lobbying and
scare-mongering of dirty industry?
Take a stand for safer chemicals
We need your voice for safer chemicals to show politicians the need to put the public before dirty industry profits.
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Help our work for a toxic free future.