Friday, August 17, 2007
Stephen Boese, Healthy Schools Network, 518-573-9957
Kathy Curtis, Clean NY 518-355-6202
(Albany) The JustGreen Partnership, a statewide coalition of health-affected, environmental justice, community, environmental and labor organizations, today applauded Governor Spitzer for his swift, decisive actions on children's toys recalled for containing lead.
Beyond recalls, getting these toys off of store shelves and out of schools and day care centers are critical steps in the effort to protect all children from this dangerous neurotoxin.
These recalled toys are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to lead and other toxic chemicals in children's products. Recent research by JustGreen organizations and DEC Wildlife Pathologist Ward Stone has found hundreds of pieces of children's jewelry that contain high levels of lead – up to 95% lead in some individual items. In recent years, children have died after ingesting high-lead jewelry.
The Governor now has on his desk a bill to limit lead levels in jewelry, especially that intended for children – A. 8077/ S.5784, introduced by Assemblyman Koon and Senator Alesi and passed both houses this spring. Similar measures have been signed into law in California and Minnesota in the past year. The JustGreen Partnership advocated for its passage and looks forward to an ongoing dialog with the Governor about further protective actions.
Said Heather Loukmas, Executive Director of the Learning Disabilities Association of NYS."We thank the Governor for taking proactive steps to address the recent toy recall and urge him to take an even more comprehensive approach to all children's products containing lead by signing into law the lead in jewelry bill now before him. Lead in jewelry is of particular concern because children may put lead-containing necklaces, pendants and other items into their mouths. With all that is known about the impact of lead on human health, particularly on the developing brain, we should be doing everything we can to reduce and eliminate children's exposure to it,"
Said Stephen Boese, NYS Director of Healthy Schools Network and Co-Chair of the Children's Environmental Health Partnership with Loukmas, "Healthy Schools Network applauds Governor Spitzer for leading this bold initiative to protect children from exposure to lead," said . "There is no 'safe' level of lead exposure for children, and tragically, lead can and does lead to lifelong disability, illness and even death. We are also acutely aware that lead can be found in other products available to children, perhaps nowhere more commonly than in cheap costume jewelry. As part of the Governor's laudable strategy to protect children from lead, we also urge him to approve legislation now on his desk that would also protect children from the hazards of lead in jewelry."
Said Kathy Curtis, Policy Director of Clean New York, a women's environmental health advocacy organization, "This is just the kind of leadership we have come to expect from Eliot Spitzer, in his previous role as Attorney General and now as Governor," said . "We look forward to continuing our work with his administration to protect children from toxic chemicals in a broad array of products present in their everyday lives."
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Healthy Schools Network, Inc.
518-462-0632
www.healthyschools.org
.. for children, health, environment, education, communities...
