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A manufacturer-run program for collecting mercury thermostats is failing to keep the toxic heavy metal out of the trash—and the environment. Turning Up The Heat II estimates that, at most, the industry recycling program has captured 8% of mercury thermostats coming out of service in the past decade. This has resulted in the disposal of over 50 tons of mercury into the environment, which can expose people to the neurotoxin through fish consumption. 

 Help us continue to make Connecticut Safe and Healthy!

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CSHC leads the way with 3 bills to protect health

HB 6526 Toxics Disclosure and Innovation for Healthy Children. This bill will:

• Require DPH to identify chemicals of concern to children and prioritize 2 every 2 years for action.
• Require manufacturers to disclose the presence of the prioritized chemicals in children’s products.
• Require the development of a plan to shift to safer alternative.
• Assist CT businesses that manufacture children’s products to work with green chemistry experts in CT to shift to a safe alternative.
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california currents

Clean Water Calls for a Fracking Moratorium

Big oil has its sights on California. Plans are in motion to make the state the nation’s number one oil producer, moving up from its current 4th place position. New hydraulic fracturing (fracking) techniques are a big part of industry’s strategy. Though oil developers promise an economic boom for the state, increased fracking has the potential to cause serious environmental and health harm, and California residents and other industries might be forced to shoulder those costs.

pennsylvania currents

One the biggest fears for people living near gas drilling is the possibility of their drinking water being polluted. People expect the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to look out for them and to provide alerts when drinking water is threatened. Unfortunately, that trust has been shaken by a recently uncovered and controversial DEP policy.

Last fall, it was revealed that DEP is not reporting all the contaminants discovered when it tests drinking water suspected to have been contaminated by fracking (hydraulic fracturing at natural gas wells). Instead, DEP’s coded reporting system only provides residents with findings for 8 of 24 contaminants included in DEP tests. Many of the contaminants not reported are carcinogenic and known to pose health hazards.