Small Business sign-on letter to the DEP

  • Posted on: 3 July 2014
  • By: admin

You can sign on to this letter of support here:

Commissioner Patricia Aho
Department of Environmental Protection
17 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0017

RE: Support for Chapter 880, Citizen-Initiated Rule to Designate Phthalates as Priority Chemicals and Require Manufacturers to Disclose Those Chemicals in Consumer Products

Dear Commissioner Aho,

As small business owners operating in Maine, we strongly support the proposed rule to protect children from toxic chemicals by naming four phthalates as priority chemicals and requiring manufacturers to disclose those chemicals in consumer products.

We are very concerned about health and business impacts that can arise if the products we use or sell contain toxic chemicals like phthalates. Just a handful of preventable childhood diseases linked to environmental exposure to chemicals cost Maine at least $380 million each year. Uncertainty about the safety of chemicals is eroding consumer confidence in many products, and the use of dangerous chemicals in common products increases our costs and liability.

Like consumers, our businesses often cannot determine which chemicals are in the products we use and sell, how hazardous they may be, and whether safer alternatives exist on the market. We need common-sense policies that increase the information available to businesses about chemicals like phthalates in consumer products.

Every Maine consumer deserves a home that is free of toxic chemicals, and every Maine business deserves the right to know that the products they use or sell are safe. Maine’s small business owners are depending on you to help protect our businesses and our customers from phthalates.

We don’t have to choose between good health and good business. We urge you to act promptly to protect Maine children from phthalates by adopting Chapter 880.

These comments are submitted for inclusion in the record on Chapter 880, Citizen Initiated Petition to name four phthalates as priority chemicals and require manufacturers to disclose those chemicals in consumer products.

Sincerely,