• Campaigns
• Getting Off the Bottle
• Pesticides
• Right-to-Know

• Resources

Major Donor
Leonard Schein
President,
Festival Cinemas

"I'm very impressed with the difficult work that Toxic Free Canada does. I support Toxic Free Canada because I know their knowledge and hard work will result in great strides in protecting the health and environment of the people of BC and Canada."

Imagine BC dialogue publishes a big idea about how to create a Toxic Free Canada

Imagine a classroom without children using puffers to manage their asthma. Imagine cancer being the odd exception rather than watching so many friends and family suffer this disease. Imagine a world with a declining trend in learning and behavioural disorders rather than the increase we see now.

If present trends continue, British Columbia will be overwhelmed by the burden of healthcare and social costs due to the increasing incidence of respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer and learning disorders. Many of these illnesses are associated with Chemical Trespass, – our involuntary exposure to toxic chemicals, including carcinogens such as asbestos, neurotoxins such as lead and many toxins found in pesticides. The six-percent a year increase in health-care spending and a slight boost in education spending provided in the 2009 BC budget will hardly make a dent in the need.

We can't go on like this. We need to shift our priorities from treating diseases to preventing them. Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way to achieve this. Rather than increasing the limited resources directed at treating these illnesses, let's build our resiliency to deal with them with a different approach. Prevention is key. By giving citizens the right to know about, and therefore the right to protect their families from toxic chemicals, we can reduce the human and financial costs of illnesses.

If communities had the right to know about their environmental exposures, they could make decisions that would minimize impacts on their social institutions and maximize their resiliency to address other pressing issues.

Community right to know is key. Consumer products containing hazardous chemicals should be labelled. Employees should have the right to know what chemicals they are exposed to in their workplaces, and parents should have the right to know what hazardous chemical exposures there are in schools and our communities.

Health care costs would be reduced – it costs less to prevent cancer than to treat it. Illness due to workplace exposures, like asbestosis and mesothelioma, would be reduced and dealt with through the employer-funded programs rather than through the public health system. And with a reduced incidence of child learning disorders, the consequent burden on the school system would be reduced.

There is great promise in prevention. We need to ensure that individuals and communities have the tools they need to exercise their right to know so they can make the most informed decisions about Chemical Trespass.

Mae Burrows
Toxic Free Canada