Ban Triclosan! Send an email to EPA (Deadline: April 8)

Triclosan, found in many consumer products like yoga mats, cosmetics, kitchen utensils and toothpaste is now found in the bodies of 75% of the US population, is linked to hormone disruption, bacterial and antibiotic resistance, dioxin contamination, and contaminated fish and biosolids. Studies this past year show that triclosan can interfere with pregnancy hormones and possibly impact fetal development. This is critical since pregnant women have elevated levels of triclosan in their bodies. Triclosan is also an endocrine disruptor that interferes with the thyroid hormone. Triclosan contaminates our waters, food and accumulates in wildlife.

Take Action!
Join us by April 8th to tell EPA to protect public health and ban triclosan from consumer products. Use the form below to quickly send an email to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson or have even greater impact by submitting comments directly to the docket.

Subject:

Your Letter:

I am writing to support the concerns raised in the petition submitted by Beyond Pesticides and Food and Water Watch (Docket #EPA-HQ-OPP-2010-0548) regarding the prevalence of the toxic pesticide triclosan in consumer products.

Research has shown that triclosan poses a threat to human health, contaminates water and persists in the environment. EPA has a responsibility under the law to protect the health of the public and the environment and must move to do so now.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds triclosan concentrations are increasing in the human population, triclosan is too dangerous a chemical to be allowed in consumer products as it is causing involuntary exposure directly and through environmental contamination. Triclosan has been linked to:

* endocrine disruption as it interferes with the thyroid hormone, estrogen and androgen hormones and as a result can impact fetal development

* bacterial resistance and possible cross-resistance to antibiotics

* contaminated sewage sludge that is used for compost and agricultural fertilizer

* toxic and more persistent breakdown products including dioxins and other endocrine disruptors

* accumulation in plants, fish, crustaceans  and is toxic to amphibians, algal communities and certain fish species

Since triclosan is no more effective than regular soap and water at reducing bacteria, there is absolutely no need for triclosan to be incorporated into consumer products, given the hazards to people and the environment. I sincerely hope your agency takes the threats posed by triclosan seriously and moves quickly to rid this chemical from consumer products.

Lisa Jackson

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Your voice is critical in generating public comments on a petition, published in the Federal Register, to ban the antibacterial chemical triclosan. As you may know, this chemical, now found in the bodies of 75% of the U.S. population, is linked to endocrine disruption, bacterial and antibiotic resistance, dioxin contamination, and contaminated fish and biosolids.

You can also help get the word out by asking your network to let EPA know that triclosan must be banned to protect the public, workers and the environment. Please share this link!

EPA published in the Federal Register a petition, filed by 82 public health and environmental groups, to ban the hazardous antimicrobial/antibacterial pesticide triclosan for non-medical use. The chemical is found in products from clothing to soaps. The

Federal Register notice

(Petition for a Ban on Triclosan, 75 FR 76461, December 8, 2010) announces a public comment period until April 8, 2011 on the need to ban triclosan under numerous federal statutes from pesticides, clean water, safe drinking water, to endangered species.

Please send your own comments and notify your networks, listserves, faith organizations, etc. and post on your website, urging other people/organizations to comment. Thanks!