Slashdot Mirror
Washington Bans Chemicals; Industry Freaks
Frosty Piss writes "The governor of Washington is scheduled to sign legislation today to ban flame retardants called PBDEs in furniture, televisions, and computers in the state. This is despite the more than $220,000 the chemical industry has spent since 2005 to defeat the legislation. At a time when the federal government is largely ineffectual in regulating long-used but potentially dangerous industrial chemicals, the Washington ban could be the beginning of the end for PBDEs across the nation. 'The industry that makes deca and PBDEs is freaking out because they lost so severely in Washington state and other states will follow,' said a spokeswoman for the Washington Toxics Coalition. 'It really is a message from Washington state and policymakers that we won't accept chemicals that build up in our bodies and our children.'"
It really is a message from Washington state and policymakers that we won't accept chemicals that build up in our bodies and our children."
...She then went on to describe the huge new civil fines Washington state
plans to impose on manufacturers of furniture, televisions, and computers
that burst into flames.
Seriously, they need to think these things throught just a wee bit more - Whether requiring a given level of flame-resistance and then bitching about the toxicity of most flame retardants, or banning leaded gasoline in the '70s, only to replace it with MTBE that behaves exactly like lead in the environment.
Sometimes "bad" still counts as the lesser of two evils.
This legislation deserves to be modded (-1, Flamebait).
Washington and Oregon are both known for extreme environmental legislation.