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Dozens of New Yorkers Rally to Keep Chemicals Out of Kids' Products

By Mary Johnson | May 22, 2012 3:51pm
Dozens of New Yorkers joined New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg at a rally in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, May 22, 2012, to raise support for a bill that would overhaul the laws governing toxic chemicals.
Dozens of New Yorkers joined New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg at a rally in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, May 22, 2012, to raise support for a bill that would overhaul the laws governing toxic chemicals.
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NEW YORK — Dozens of New Yorkers, including Sen. Charles Schumer, attended a rally in Washington, D.C., Tuesday to drum up support for the Safe Chemicals Act, a bill that aims to overhaul the laws that govern toxic chemicals.

The New York contingent joined hundreds of people from across the country to form a "stroller brigade" — a group of parents who are fighting to keep chemicals out of commercial products — on Capitol Hill.

"My kids are not a chemical waste dump," said Penelope Jagessar-Chaffer, a Brooklyn mother who directed and produced the film "Toxic Baby," in a statement. "Yet with hundreds of chemicals turning up in umbilical-cord blood samples, our babies are being polluted, before birth."

Schumer is a co-sponsor of the bill, which was proposed by New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg and is coming up for a vote in the Senate’s environment and public works committee.

Schumer has also been a leader in the effort to ban bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles, sippy cups, baby food and infant formula.

"We need to identify these dangerous toxins and get them off the shelves and out of our homes," Schumer said in remarks before advocates on Tuesday.

"We should pass down our memories, our traditions, our wisdom and even our mannerisms to our children," he added. "But the last thing we should be passing down are deadly chemicals and toxins."