This is an excellent post but we all know by now that waiting for the government to ban particular chemicals takes a decade or more (recall Dursban?). Meanwhile, the suffering continues and scores of new but equally toxic substances are produced and marketed.

Yes, we need to keep legislating but overall, we need to empower consumers to act independently:

1. Lobby for laws requiring full disclosure of ingredients on labels and MSDS sheets. Groups such as EWG and government agencies such as NIOSH and ATSDR could then provide internet and printed charts interpreting chemical names and potential effects for use by consumers. Capitalism is supposed to offer control of the marketplace to consumers. Allow us to reward the best companies making the safest products with our consumer dollars.

2. Lobby for advance notification laws when toxic substances are to be used in a business, school or multi-unit residence. Most people never know they are being exposed to pesticides or solvents because no duty to warn exists in so many cases. Lobby for accessible records of use of toxic substances by businesses and farms which can affect others within a certain radius of such activity. If such records existed in the offices of local county clerks, people could make better choices when buying land/homes or seeking answers to health problems.

Such disclosures would be non-punitive in nature while allowing physicians to obtain full exposure histories on patients with health problems.

3. Develop non-profit law firms to allow damaged consumers to successfully set precedents in product safety law through litigation. The courts were intended to help our country evolve but injured people usually lack the resources to obtain evidence and expert opinions. Plaintiffs' lawyers generally aspire to obtaining sealed settlements. That limits expenditures of their time and money while increasing profits with little or no risk to them. However, industry chalks up such expenses to the cost of doing business and continues their marketing of the same products and services. If plaintiffs' attorneys worked for deservedly high salaries, profits from larger court wins would re-enter firm coffers to obtain meaningful research into product safety issues and obtain the best experts for each case. Then, injuries to consumers would only have to be prosecuted a few times before change was guaranteed through publicly recorded wins.

Corporations are paper citizens right now with far more freedom of access and privilege in the judicial system than flesh and blood citizens.

4. Devote more attention to whistle-blower protection. Some of us have put our lives on the line to do so while suffering harassment, stalking, vandalism and outright assault. Not one organization is out there to assist us.

Thank you for the important work you do - I hope these suggestions from someone on 'the front lines' of the battle (I was disabled by pesticide poisoning) can help.

Barbara Rubin
www.armchairactivist.us