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Stroller brigade takes on the chemical lobby
Photo credit: AP Photo/Jeffrey Furticella | A young child wears colorful rain boots while sitting in a stroller in the Chelsea Market Passage of The High Line, Friday, May 4, 2012, in New York. Cloudy conditions throughout the morning and early afternoon gave way to sunshine and temperatures in the high 70's. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Furticella)
Hundreds of parents -- calling themselves a stroller brigade – plan to wheel their charges through the nation’s capitol on Tuesday. They want a ban on suspected cancer-causing chemicals used in babies’ changing table pads, nursing pillows and crib mattresses.
Newsday said in an editorial last year that these flame-retarding chemicals produce “only a tiny gain in safety but an increased risk of cancer – especially for kids.”
In 1977, New York banned one chemical, Tris, from children’s pajamas. But Tris is still used in those changing table pads, couch cushions and other home items – a concession to pressure from chemical manufacturers. The Chicago Tribune ran an investigative series on the industry’s deceptive lobbying practices earlier this month.
Profit before babies’ health seems like a reckless tradeoff.
