LEAS on CBC News November 19 2007

CBC News Monday, November 19, 2007 | 5:58 PM ET

NDP MLA Gregor Robertson plans to introduce two private member's bills in the B.C. legislature on Monday aimed at forcing companies to better label toxic ingredients in products

Robertson said he put forward the right-to-know legislation after a study, called Polluted Children, Toxic Nation and conducted by the group Environmental Defence, found high levels of toxic residues in his children's bodies.

"The results were shocking — an average of over 30 different toxic substances in my teenage kids, and levels higher than many of the adults in the study," Robertson said in a written statement. "These are kids that have grown up on an organic farm, living a very healthy lifestyle."

"I was outraged by the load of toxins in my family and committed myself to look at what government can do to reduce these risks, especially to young kids," Robertson said. "Our right to know about our food, and about what toxic substances we are exposed to, is fundamentally important in a democratic society."

The legislation has the support of the organization responsible for The CancerSmart Consumer Guide.

Sean Griffin, author of The CancerSmart Consumer Guide and a researcher with a non-profit group dedicated to reducing toxins in BC workplaces and homes, points to common household products like nail-hardeners and mothballs, which often contain known cancer-causing agents.

There's no way for British Columbians to know what products contain hazardous chemicals, and that's why his group is pushing for government support of the proposed bills, Griffin told CBC News over the weekend.

"What has happened in places like California is that when the requirement is that you label something with a hazard, the manufacturer quickly reformulates it so that he doesn't have to put that label on," Griffin said.

Mae Burrows, the executive director of the Labour Environmental Alliance Society, which also supports the bills, worked on a Health Canada committee on the issue for years.

But the committee hit an impasse with its industry representatives, she said, and it's now up to politicians to pass legislation that gives consumers the right to know when suspected toxins are used in products.
   
The B.C. government considers the issue a federal one, not a provincial one, Burrows told CBC News over the weekend, but she disagrees.

"There is a way to introduce right-to-know legislation provincially and, really, it should be introduced at a provincial level as well as a federal level," she told CBC News on the weekend.

B.C.'s health minister said he'll wait to see the proposed legislation before commenting on it.

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