Toxic pollution is among our most insidious and least appreciated public health and environmental threats. Five decades of intensive chemical use in our society has contaminated our environment, our food and our bodies.

Every day, Illinoisans are unwittingly exposed to untested, potentially harmful pollution in potentially exacerbating combinations—all with unknown impacts. Sadly, children’s development is a delicate biological process easily disrupted by toxic substances, making developing children the most vulnerable among us to toxic pollution.

Environment Illinois is working in the Legislature to clean up four of Illinois’ most pressing and preventable sources of toxic pollution. Despite resistance from powerful special interests, as of this writing, at least two of our toxics bills are on track to pass this spring and we’ve made substantial progress on the others.

Mercury is a potent toxic that damages the human heart, brain and immune system and disrupts healthy childhood development. Although we recently won our campaign to clean up 90 percent of power plant mercury pollution, mercury is still widely used in thermostats and measuring devices like thermometers and barometers. When disposed of, these products are often crushed or incinerated, releasing mercury into the air. Since safe alternatives exist at comparable costs, Illinois should eliminate unnecessary, toxic mercury in products.

Over 50 million pounds of the toxic flame retardant deca-bromodiphenylether (decaBDE) are built into TVs, mattresses and other products annually in North America. The last of the toxic PBDE family of flame retardants still in widespread use, decaBDE leaches out of products, accumulates in the environment and people, is conveyed to children through breast milk, damages mammals’ developing brains, and breaks down into even more dangerous toxins. With cost-effective and safe alternatives available, it’s time to phase out decaBDE.

Discarded electronic equipment, known as e-scrap or e-waste, is our country’s fastest growing category of waste and a significant source of toxic pollution. Electronic devices contain dangerous chemicals—such as mercury, cadmium, lead, hexavalent chromium and PBDEs—that persist in the environment and accumulate in living organisms. There is no national or state program to recycle e-scrap, so it often ends up dumped in landfills. But any amount of these toxics leaching into groundwater could be hazardous, and there is no guarantee that the landfills equipment will end up in are properly run.

Diesel engines are powerful and efficient, but their exhaust and black soot pose a major threat to public health, including more than eight deaths annually in Illinois. Diesel exhaust contains 40 air pollutants deemed toxic by the U.S. EPA—causing nervous and respiratory system damage and cancer—and are linked to decreased infant birth weights and increases in the risk of infant death. New federal rules are cleaning up new diesel vehicles, but will do nothing to address the millions already on the road. Retrofitting existing diesel is a cost-effective strategy to reduce air quality related health problems.

With all of these sources of toxic pollution, a small investment could protect all Illinoisans from harm, but manufacturers and others won’t make that investment without a big push. That’s why your support is so important to protect our environment and public health.

Thank you for your support,

Rebecca Stanfield

Director