A New York advisory council largely composed of "environmental" activists has created a list of eighty-five chemicals that they want state agencies to avoid buying because they are allegedly dangerous. The council also wants $9 billion in annual state purchasing power to help rid the marketplace of "toxic chemicals and carcinogens."
"An overwhelming majority of toxicologists agree that environmental exposures to these chemicals are not dangerous," says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross, "but you don't hear them because the activists are very vocal in trying to convince the government to 'protect the children.'"
"This whole thing is scientifically baseless," says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. "There seems to be this false dichotomy that you are either an environmentalist who finds these chemicals hazardous or you are siding with industry for financial reasons. There is no middle ground for science. It's just a travesty to spend $9 billion to address a hazard that doesn't exist."
