Dear Friends

Did you know that every day, you and I come in contact with toxic flame retardants? Many household goods—from the crib mattresses our babies sleep on to the sofa you may be sitting on right now or even the electronic device you are holding in your hand—are manufactured with chemicals that migrate out of these products and are linked to serious health risks.

That is why the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently announced a groundbreaking decision to move forward with a ban on these chemicals in children’s products, furniture, mattresses, and the casings around electronics. But now, thanks to the Trump administration, that hard-fought victory is at risk.

The decision to ban these chemicals came out of a two-year effort by a diverse coalition including firefighters, pediatricians, consumer advocates, scientists and #Earthjustice supporters like you, who sent over 80,000 letters urging the #CPSC to ban toxic flame retardants from consumer products.

The ban could be delayed—or derailed—by Trump’s new nominee to the CPSC, Dana Baiocco, who has spent much of her career defending companies’ defective and dangerous products.

The CPSC made the right decision to begin the process to ban the use of organohalogen flame retardants. Keep the pressure on the CPSC to finalize the ban now.

These chemicals don’t stay in the products we buy—they get into the air and stick to household dust. Children and adults alike breathe them in, eat them when they touch dusty surfaces and then handle food, and even absorb them through their skin. As a result, 97 percent of U.S. residents have measurable quantities of toxic flame retardants in their blood.

Your family’s health should not be endangered by the couch they sit on or the cell phone they use. Let’s keep the pressure on and tell the CPSC to honor its promise to protect consumers and uphold the ban on these dangerous chemicals.

Sincerely,