Canada’s New Tomorrow Today Report
Eleven influential environmental groups in Canada – including the David Suzuki Foundation, Greenpeace Canada and Sierra Club Canada – recently put together a roadmap for change called Tomorrow Today: How Canada can make a world of difference. The document reports on seven key issues, and I highly recommend giving it a read through. The information included is generally not surprising or new, but the authors lay out detailed recommendations for what the Canadian government should do in the short term to lessen the country’s environmental impact.
Among the topics discussed in the report is a whole section on “human health and toxic chemicals”. Canadian law today does not ban certain hazardous chemicals including polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and phthalates. Once again, environmental standards are far ahead of legal mandates, but if the groups behind the report have their way, Canada is on a path to bringing environmental standards like EcoLogo and the law closer together. As stated recently, EcoLogo bans PDBEs in products like office machines and phthalates in a number of floor care products. The new Tomorrow Today report recommends that the Canadian government immediately ban or phase out these chemicals in all or nearly all products. It would be a welcome move.
Meanwhile in the US, federal law is also far behind what environmental groups recommend. PBDEs, for example, are still allowed, though legislators are starting to ban them at the state level. In 2007 Washington became the first state to ban PDBEs and other states appear to be following suit.