Today, I’m joining moms from across the country to testify before EPA on proposed pollution standards for chemical manufacturing.
EPA’s proposed standards will help protect people from the hazardous air pollution emitted by more than 200 of the biggest, most toxic chemical manufacturing facilities in the country—facilities that combine fossil fuels and hazardous chemicals to make plastics, paints, vinyl flooring, and other petrochemical products.
Moms are speaking out today to encourage EPA to strengthen this important rule and finalize it as quickly as possible.
These proposed standards are emotional for me. My best friend, Ursula, grew up in Houston, just a few miles from 4 toxic manufacturing facilities that would be covered by these standards. Her mom died when she was a kid, and her dad relocated to Port Arthur where their home overlooked a tank farm, next to 5 more of these toxic chemical manufacturing facilities.
Ursula died from a malignant cancer when her children were in preschool. We will never know if her death was pure “bad luck” or whether it had something to do with her exposure to air pollution from 9 chemical manufacturing facilities over the course of her childhood.
What we do know is that the toxic chemicals emitted by these facilities can ravage the human body.
The companies covered by these newly proposed rules release extraordinary amounts of carcinogens into the air, and they have done so for generations. All with cruel disregard for the devastating impacts on communities around their facilities.
People are paying for this with their health.
Communities across the US—but particularly in Texas and Louisiana, where the lion’s share of these facilities are located—are counting on EPA to protect them from these heavily polluting facilities.
Please take 20 seconds today to tell EPA to protect people from petrochemical manufacturing pollution. Strong air pollution standards could save someone’s best friend.
TELL EPA: PROTECT PEOPLE FROM TOXIC AIR POLLUTION RELEASED IN PLASTICS AND CHEMICAL MANUFACTURING