Clean Water Action Alliance of Minnesota
Current Campaigns
Toxics Policy
Preventing Pesticide Pollution
To protect our children's and our own health, we need to manage pesticides that cause cancer or wreak havoc in the hormone systems of humans and wildlife.
In addition, the Department of Health should have the authority to protect the public when use of such pesticides creates a threat of exposure, and the public should have access to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture records of what pesticides have been applied when and where, as with other industries.
More than 7 million pounds of pesticides sold in Minnesota have been identified as known or probable carcinogens, and 3.4 million pounds have been identified as causing reproductive problems.
Despite the fact that every other industry is required to monitor and report pollutants discharged into the environment, citizens cannot access this information about pesticide application. Citizens have a right to know what pesticides they and their children are exposed to.
Clean Water Action Alliance and our allies are working to reduce health threats from pesticides in Minnesota. The Minnesota Legislature should protect our public health by reducing health threats from pesticides in Minnesota.
The Minnesota Legislature should protect our public health by reducing use of pesticides that cause harm, authorizing the Department of Health to protect Minnesota citizens, and provide public access to pesticide the application information.
Download our factsheet (pdf, 248kb) to learn more about pesticides, how we are exposed, and the effects these chemicals can have on our bodies and on the environment.
You will need to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader properly installed to view PDF documents. You can get it free from Adobe.
Preventing Harm Minnesota
Preventing Harm Minnesota seeks to improve the health of children in Minnesota by promoting greater precaution in the policies and personal choices to reduce common harmful chemicals and pollutants in a child's environment.
Clean Water Action Alliance is working with a coalition of parents, community groups, and health and environmental organizations to improve Minnesota's laws to protect our children from unnecessary harm from chemicals where they live, learn, and play. Preventing Harm has been building the coalition, fundraising, and working with the public (parents, policy makers, educators, health care providers, affected communities, and others) to determine our campaign priorities.
Disabilities in children and many childhood cancers and are on the rise. We don't know exactly why. But toxic pollutants – along with nutrition, genetics, and other factors – are important contributors to these problems.
Pollution is perhaps the most important contributor, because, unlike genetic factors, it is a preventable contributor to disease. More precautionary policies are critically important for Minnesota's families. Precautionary policies will do a better job of preventing children and other vulnerable groups from being injured or disabled by toxic pollutants.
Preventing Harm Minnesota envisions a Minnesota where:
- Our children's right to grow up in a safe, healthy environment is protected by public policies that make children's well-being paramount;
- Government is proactive to prevent harm to children;
- Polluters clean up their own toxic pollution;
- Businesses provide safe products and services to meet human needs; and
- Citizens understand that investing in an environment healthy for children will reap rich dividends by helping to avoid costly illness and disability, and by ensuring more productive adults for the future.
Please visit: www.preventingharmminnesota.org for more information.
PVC: The Poison Plastic Lurking In Your Shopping Cart
Are Your Family's Products Safe?
Did you know your child's new toy or shower curtain may be made from chemicals linked to cancer? Unfortunately many common consumer products today are made out of or packaged in polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the poison plastic. These products are dangerous to our health and environment from start to finish - in the factory, at home, and in the trash - releasing poisonous chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects.
Download our factsheet (pdf) and learn about PVC and what you can do to urge manufacturers and retailers to phase out the use of these chemicals.
