It’s hard to say.

We all assume that chemicals used to make ordinary products are tested for safety — but they are not. From baby bottles made with bisphenol A (BPA) to carpets containing formaldehyde, dangerous chemicals are in our homes, places of work, and the products we use every day. With each new scientific report linking toxic chemical exposure to a serious health problem, it becomes more obvious that the law intended to keep harmful chemicals in check — the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976 — is not working.

Why? Well, as you can imagine the chemical industry doesn’t want you to know if their products are toxic, because then, you know, you might not buy them! Remember how the tobacco industry tried for decades to discredit the science around smoking? They also don’t want to be told not to sell a product because it can make people sick. A recent investigation by the Chicago Tribune on brominated flame retardants reveals how the chemical industry is deceiving the public, even under oath!

But our families cannot afford to keep living in this toxic economy, and we should not have to choose between the things we need to live a good life and our health.

What’s needed is a real law that protects the 99.99% of us who are exposed to toxic chemicals every day for the profit of the 1% that run the chemical industry. We need to fix the broken TSCA and move forward to a green and healthy marketplace that provides what we need without exposing us to the risk of cancer, birth defects, diabetes, or any of the other illnesses linked to toxic economy.

Folks from all over the country are headed to Congress next week to tell Congress to fix this law and protect our environment and our families. Please take a minute to give them your support by signing this petition.

On behalf of these communities, over 100 organizations representing workers, disproportionately impacted communities, healthcare professionals, and environmentalists have repeated their request to President Obama that he use his authority under the Clean Air Act to prevent chemical disasters. And it is not just these organizations and the communities they represent, the New York Times has asked for the EPA to take action, and so has the former Administrator of the EPA under President Bush, Governor Christine Todd Whitman, whose call followed the formal request of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.

Congressional Republicans have stymied efforts to correct what the New York Times calls a “clear and present danger,” but the Obama Administration has advocated strongly for a comprehensive policy that would focus on preventing a chemical disaster by using safer technologies, instead of just focusing on fenceline security. President Obama has been clear that he will move his agenda forward with or without Congress and when it comes to the dangers from chemical plants, he has the tools to do just that.

According to chemical facility reports to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), more than 480 chemical facilities each put 100,000 or more people at risk of a poison gas disaster. President Obama knows about this risk and in his 2008 campaign plan “Change We Can Believe In” he pledged to “Secure our chemical plants by setting a clear set of federal regulations that all plants must follow, including improving barriers, containment, mitigation and safety training, and wherever possible, using safer technology, such as less toxic chemicals.”

Now is the time for the president and the EPA to act on this campaign pledge. This Congress has become captive of the chemical companies that want their profits to trump the safety and security of the public and has failed to pass any law that would focus on disaster prevention. President Obama needs to now take the reigns and fully implement the Clean Air Act protections that will make our communities safer.

You can do your part by signing our petition and sharing our interactive map with your friends and family.

Heartland Institute's billboard

Heartland released a billboard featuring a picture of Ted Kaczynski next to the text “I still believe in Global Warming. Do You?”

Sign our petition asking the rest of Heartland’s corporate sponsors to stop funding climate science denial.

Just for background, Heartland’s fringe positions on science and loose grasp of reality is no secret in corporate circles. Heartland’s climate stance is so extreme that ExxonMobil, the great patron of climate science denial, dropped them years ago – saying they could no longer support groups that “serve as a distraction” to the climate issue.

Heartland peddles its own pseudo-science that contradicts the vast majority of scientists in the world, and observable reality.  As James Hansen recently wrote in the New York Times, climate change can be conclusively linked to recent extreme weather conditions like the major heat wave that killed hundreds across Europe and the excruciating drought the western U.S. is still suffering from. (At right: A cow stuck in the mud in Texas, photograph by Jay Janner, 2011)

However, in part because the effects of global climate change have become perceptible to most Americans, fewer and fewer people are buying Heartland’s BS about climate science.

Which leads to the Big Questions: – where does Heartland get the money to buy crazy billboards?

Where do they get the money to pay for climate denying school curriculum?

With Exxon gone, which anti-science corporations still support Heartland’s looney climate denial meetings?

For starters: Pfizer.

Pfizer, the giant drug company, is a leading sponsor of the Heartland Institute. But wait you say, doesn’t Pfizer have a strong statement about the serious threats posed by climate change and the necessity of cutting greenhouse emissions?  Yes, yes they do. But, Pfizer also has a history of saying the right thing to the public while doing the exact opposite behind closed doors.  Take healthcare reform for example; Pfizer publicly supported president Obama’s Healthcare reform while quietly giving the Heartland Institute hundreds of thousands of dollars to savage the president and the healthcare law.

Side note: Pfizer is no stranger to being called out for their affiliations to unsavory corporate front groups. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the group that helped for-profit prison companies write and pass immigration bills that put more people in jail – and helped gun groups write and pass the Stand Your Ground law in Florida, (which protected the killer of teenage Trayvon Martin) counts Pfizer as a corporate sponsor.  At a protest calling for Pfizer to drop ALEC, eight people were arrested outside of Pfizer’s gates. In a telling show of corporate hubris, Pfizer never even responded to the demonstrators requests.

Nucor, the steel manufacturer, is also a Heartland funder.

According to leaked internal documents from the Heartland Institute, Nucor directly funds Heartland’s climate work.  Like Pfizer, Nucor talks openly about solutions to climate change, and their website proudly proclaims “Concerns about climate change not taken lightly by Nucor.”

Other corporate bad actors still funding Heartland include Comcast, Reynolds American inc, and Golden Rule Insurance.  Tell these companies that their support of climate denial must be stopped, by signing this petition.

PolluterWatch: Greenpeace Investigates Heartland Institute Leaked Documents – click to see a list of companies that dropped Heartland and ongoing investigations.

Greenpeace LA Volunteers at Barnes & Noble in Santa Monica

“Our message is simple: Barnes & Noble, stop buying paper from forest destroyer Asia Pulp & Paper,” said volunteer Community Coordinator Wendell Covalt.

The activists talked to over 150 customers who agreed that Barnes & Noble should stop selling rainforest destruction, and many signed our petition and asked the store manager to tell their manager that it’s time to get sustainable.

“Customers that are unhappy with Barnes & Nobles’ business practices are likely to find another bookstore until the company changes their ways.” Said Wendell.

They finished out the event by sending photos and a letter to Barnes & Noble CEO, to let him know that these events will continue until the company drops rainforest destruction from their shelves.

Many thanks to the fantastic LA Area Greenpeace volunteers who made this event a success!

Pictured above: Lauren K, Maryann A, Sarah T, Wendell C, Laura C, Sabina B, Mark S, and Phillip R (not shown)

Full story here: Shocking images from the BP Gulf disaster