News From USW: Steelworkers Union Crusades Against Toxic Trade to Protect Kids from Lead Toys, Products this Holiday Season

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--News From USW: As the holiday shopping season kicks into high gear, the United Steelworkers is hosting “Safe Home Sessions” in 17 cities across the country to educate families about how to screen for lead contaminants in toys and other products. With the massive toy recalls, parents and grandparents across the country are extremely concerned about toxins that kids are being exposed to every day.

“It’s frightening for parents this holiday season as each week seems to bring a new recall of toys and other products made in China contaminated with lead,” said Mary Sparks, a local union activist trained by the USW Health, Safety and Environment Department who is assisting with home demonstrations as part of the USW’s “Protect Our Kids – Stop Toxic Imports” campaign. “With so many doubts out there about products, through our ‘Safe Home Sessions’ we aim to arm consumers with information and practical methods for protecting their kids and other family members.”

The “Safe Home Sessions” are being held in and around Los Angeles, CA; Columbus, OH; Traverse City, MI, Buffalo, NY; Houston, TX; Oklahoma City, OK; Tacoma, WA; Des Moines, IA; St. Louis, MO; Tampa, FL; Louisville, KY; Charleston, WV; Syracuse, NY; Indianapolis, IN; Green Bay, WI; and Nashville, TN. The national day of testing punctuates work by the union’s Women of Steel, who have been hosting “Safe Home Sessions” in living rooms across the United States and Canada since September to help draw attention to flawed trade policies that are allowing dangerous products into our homes.

The USW also will provide training on how to find and remove dangerous products from homes. The union also is urging participants to visit kindergartens, day care centers, churches or local retailers to make sure that the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recalled items are not in those facilities.

More than 30 million toys, including 1.5 million Thomas the Tank Engine toys in June, have been recalled because of dangers including excessive levels of lead. Other toxic imports include lipstick, toothpaste, seafood, children’s lunchboxes and pet food. The danger doesn’t stop there – Chinese-made red-leaded steel, counterfeit circuit breakers and automobile brakes, and improperly made tires have all been sold in North America - some with deadly consequences.

“Products we made safe years ago through the regulation of U.S. manufacturers are now being made abroad and they’re coming in poisonous through a back door in trade policy,” said Dr. Herbert Needleman, a University of Pittsburgh professor who pioneered lead research and treatments 30 years ago. Dr. Needleman said he was deeply disappointed that “decades of progress through research have been reversed.”

Lead can cause a variety of health problems, including learning disabilities, stunted growth, kidney damage and even death.

USW International President Leo W. Gerard said the union has a long history with promoting lead safety, including pushing to get it out of the workplace and gasoline more than three decades ago. The USW also has been fighting for years against failed trade policies that have been bad for workers and communities.

“Every working family cares about this issue. It surely hits home with ours,” Gerard said. “People are starting to realize that we’re paying the price for cheap, imported goods. We’re being flooded with dangerous products so corporations can make bigger profits. It’s time for our policymakers to fix this broken trade system, repair our regulatory agencies and protect our jobs and families.”

The USW Get the Lead Out screening kits are available for free, for as long as they last, at www.usw.org, www.stoptoxicimports.org or www.protect-our-kids.org. Besides screening equipment and information, the kits also provide information and tools to deal with failed trade and inadequate regulatory policies.

The Steelworkers’ campaign is supported by a broad array of consumer and environmental organizations, including the Blue-Green Alliance (www.bluegreenalliance.org), the Public Health Institute and the Center for Environmental Health (www.cehca.org). Also working with the USW is Marilyn Furer, the grandmother who blew the whistle on the leaded bibs.

Over the past few months, Women of Steel have hosted “Safe Home Sessions” in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, Birmingham, Ala., and Baltimore.

The USW represents 850,000 workers in the United States and Canada employed in the industries of metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and the service sector. For more information: www.usw.org/.