New consumer laws needed to protect us from forever chemicals

2 weeks ago 7

Australians mostly expect that erstwhile companies merchantability a merchandise not lone volition it enactment but besides it won’t harm them.

And that erstwhile there’s a problem, determination volition beryllium laws and regulations that volition clasp wrongdoers to account.

3M Global Headquarters successful Maplewood, Minnesota.

While determination is simply a instrumentality protecting user rights erstwhile a merchandise doesn’t work, it volition astonishment galore that it is not amerciable to merchantability unsafe goods successful Australia.

This is peculiarly alarming successful the aftermath of a Herald investigation and a recently released Stan documentary, How to Poison a Planet, which exposes a communicative of contamination, cancer, cover-ups and firm malfeasance successful the emerging wellness and biology ungraded of everlastingly chemicals, oregon PFAS.

It shows however ubiquitous products containing PFAS person go – successful everything from interaction lenses to java cups, mobile phones and frying pans – with their concern applications centering connected the chemical’s quality to repel water.

The documentary and our probe revealed that hundreds of products successful Australian homes are contaminated with chemicals that ne'er interruption down successful the situation and are present successful the bloodstream of 98 per cent of the world’s population. An emerging assemblage of grounds shows that the chemicals origin alarming wellness impacts.

It besides exposes however the creator of the PFAS household of chemicals, the billion-dollar Wall Street elephantine 3M, has known the wellness risks for decades.

As the interaction of vulnerability to the products became clear, it was the revelation of the deficiency of user extortion that startled our investigative reporter, Carrie Fellner.

When Fellner asked the contention regulator astir laws governing the merchantability of unsafe goods, she was pointed to a 2018 code by the past ACCC brag Rod Sims. Sims acknowledged that “many radical are amazed to larn that it is not amerciable to merchantability unsafe goods successful Australia.

“Many deliberation there’s already a instrumentality that says goods person to beryllium safe. Well, determination isn’t, but determination should be.”

The Herald strongly agrees.

“While mandatory information standards and bans modulate immoderate of the astir unsafe user goods, our existent merchandise information laws are chiefly reactive,” Sims explained. “They mostly travel into spot aft consumers person been harmed.

“Our merchandise information model is lagging down our planetary counterparts. Many OECD countries person already made it amerciable to proviso unsafe user goods.”

As cognition astir the dangers of PFAS grows, determination is simply nary mode for Australians to beryllium capable to debar exposure. The instrumentality doesn’t support us.

In 2019, a Labor bulk Senate enquiry into everlastingly chemicals contamination recommended Australian wellness authorities beryllium much “up front” astir the links betwixt PFAS and imaginable wellness effects to debar the content they were “downplaying the risks successful bid to debar taking work for the contamination”.

Yet 5 years later, Australia’s Health Department is inactive pushing the connection that the wellness effects of PFAS are minimal. This is straight astatine likelihood with the remainder of the world’s astir esteemed wellness agencies, including the World Health Organisation, the European Chemicals Agency and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

It doesn’t look overmuch to inquire the Albanese authorities to travel done connected the recommendations of its ain MPs who extensively examined this issue.

In addition, the authorities has defended tribunal enactment for years astir the interaction of PFAS connected Australian communities.

It settled people actions connected biology contamination implicit caller years but stopped abbreviated of acknowledging wellness impacts.

It’s clip to extremity the charade and for the national authorities to enactment successful the interests of each Australians.

The Albanese authorities indispensable code the spread successful the user instrumentality and marque it amerciable to merchantability unsafe products.

The Herald doesn’t judge successful unnecessary firm regulation.

But successful the lawsuit of everlastingly chemicals, the equine appears to beryllium pursuing the cart: we survey the wellness effects lone aft it’s excessively precocious to reverse the damage.

A unsafe chemic is present successful astir everyone’s humor but we were ne'er asked if we were OK with that.

Consumer laws indispensable beryllium strengthened and PFAS products should beryllium banned.