Press

MEDIA RELEASE

For Immediate Release: October 30, 2006
For More Information: Rob Attardo, CEC, (518) 462-5527 or Steve Breyman, CEC, (518) 462-5527

Legislators Sign Pledge to Protect New Yorkers from Toxics

Thirty-five candidates for State Senate and Assembly have pledged their support for comprehensive chemical policy reform, including the chairpersons of the Assembly Environmental and Health Committees. The candidates signing the pledge of the Alliance for a Toxic Free Future (ATFF) included twelve incumbents and twenty-three challengers.

“ATFF is pleased to have the support of Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried, as well as Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Thomas DiNapoli. All the pledge signers are champions of environmental health, and the Alliance members look forward to working with them to introduce and pass needed reforms,” said Steve Breyman, CEC Co-chair.

“With a new gubernatorial administration, we hope to see stronger action at the Capitol to protect the public from hazardous materials. We need programs like Green Chemistry and a Toxic Use Reduction Institute to help change the way businesses approach the problem of toxic materials. These programs would serve as a resource for industry to identify safer alternatives to toxic products as well as helping them to incorporate them into their production models. Similar institutions exist in Massachusetts and provide a wealth of research on toxic chemicals and effective safer alternatives. Europe is already requiring such changes in products sold there. It’s the type of innovation New York needs to build an economy for the 21st century,” added Breyman, an ATFF steering committee member. Breyman noted that such initiatives could be funded out of existing state appropriations for pollution prevention.

The Alliance is developing proposals for potential Executive Orders, budget initiatives and bills to support a range of chemical policy reforms. One needed reform is a comprehensive safe and sustainable procurement policy for state government, promoting energy efficiency and recycled content while avoiding toxic materials. Localities such as New York City, Buffalo and most recently the city of Hudson have already enacted similar policies. Shifting the state’s $9 billion annual purchasing power towards safe products will help transform the marketplace, making environmentally safe products affordable to consumers.

The pledge also calls for a reduction of persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs). PBTs are long lasting and build up in the environment to levels that are harmful to humans. A reduction strategy would include efforts to ban the use of lindane and deca brominated diphenyl ethers. These and other chemicals known to be carcinogens, neurotoxins, and endocrine disrupting chemicals need to be phased out to protect the health of New Yorkers.

Other key issues include development of an environmental justice policy to reduce the negative impact on low income and community of color neighborhoods, and the creation of several Children’s Environmental Health clinics around the state

ATFF’s seventy-plus member organizations represent a broad range of environmental health, justice, labor, faith-based, academic, and health-effected groups. The groups are seeking to eliminate the use and emission of toxic chemicals by using safer substitutes, and redesigning production processes, products and systems. The Alliance was formed in the fall of 2004 with the goal of reforming New York’s chemicals policy so that the threat of toxic chemical exposure becomes a thing of the past.

ATFF is nonpartisan and does not endorse particular candidates.

Candidates who have pledged:

Assembly

District Candidate

1 Dan Panico

2 Fred Thiele

4 Bruce Bennett

4 Steve Englebright

7 Grace Kelly-McGovern

10 Craig Heller

15 Rob Walker

16 Thomas DiNapoli

16 Louis F. Chisari

19 Donald H. Birnbaum

28 Dolores Maddis

34 Ivan Lafayette

41 Jonathan Testeverde

46 Alec Brook-Kransy

55 Rose Laney

75 Richard N. Gottfried

90 Sandra Galef

93 Shelley Mayer

94 Peter H. Partridge

94 Kenneth Zebrowski

95 Ellen C. Jaffe

103 Virginia Martin

104 John McEneny

115 David Gordon

119 Joan K. Christensen

123 Barbara Abbott King

125 Barbara Lifton

130 Daniel C. West

Senate

District Candidate

9 Odelia Goldberg

29 Thomas K. Duane

36 Curtis Brooks

39 Christopher P. McBride

42 Suzan Zenit

52 Mark Trabucco

55 Eugene Saltzberg