Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-South Queens) today signed on as a cosponsor to bill A.8266 sponsored in the NYS Assembly by Assemblyman Englebright. This legislation protects children from avoidable illness and toxic exposure by allowing the Department of Environmental Conversation (DEC) to regulate, and in cases of significant public health concern ban the use of some dangerous chemicals in children’s products.

“As Chair of the Assembly’s Child Safety Subcommittee, I am proud to support this bill to protect children and allow parents to make informed decisions about the items they are purchasing for their family.”said Pheffer Amato. “These are the kinds of challenges I came to the Assembly to tackle. As a mother of two, I deeply feel the stakes of getting this issue right because so many toxic chemicals are used to make children’s products without any sort of restriction. “

This bill amends the Environmental Conservation Law to better regulate the use of toxic chemicals in children’s products and establishes an infrastructure within state government to categorize chemicals of concerns along with requiring disclosures by children’s products manufacturers as to whether their products contain chemicals of concern. A 2005 study of industrial chemicals conducts by a non-profit research based organized, the Environmental Working Group, detected 287 chemicals and pollutants in umbilical cord blood, 180 of which cause cancer, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests.