Action Alerts

Get these toxic chemicals out of our household products

What's At Stake

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 — could be 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) made the groundbreaking decision to move forward with a ban on these chemicals in children’s products, furniture, mattresses, and the casings around electronics. The CPSC made the right decision to begin the process to ban the use of organohalogen flame retardants, but it has not yet finalized the ban. Keep the pressure on the CPSC to finalize the ban.

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The decision to ban these chemicals came out of a multi-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.

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.

A father and newborn baby daughter at home sleeping. He is wearing headphones and wearing casual clothing.
A father and newborn baby daughter at home sleeping. He is wearing headphones and wearing casual clothing.

Delivery to Consumer Product Safety Commission

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Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.

Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

Your action is with us in court.

If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.

Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.

It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.