Take Action for Kids in One Simple Step
This post is sponsored by Clean Air Moms Action. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Being the mom of two boys with asthma can be a little stressful. I make sure they take their preventive inhalers in the morning. I make sure they have rescue inhalers at the ready if they would need them. I keep an eye on allergen and air quality levels since they tend to trigger their asthma. I do everything I can to protect them.
But what do I do when our government is trying pass legislation that will directly impact my kids? I use my voice. And you should too.
We rely on our government to ensure so much in our lives is safe: The food we eat. The air we breathe. The toys our children play with—and so much more. But right now, legislation is moving in Congress that guts the crucial federal safety protections we rely on to ensure that what surrounds us isn’t putting us in danger or making us sick.
These two pieces of legislation—the Regulatory Accountability Act and the REINS Act—are direct and radical threats to public health that have broad, overreaching consequences. They will render agencies incapable of implementing and enforcing commonsense safety laws that have broad public support.
- The REINS Act would require Congressional approval of rules, effectively giving either branch of Congress, or powerful lobbying groups, a “pocket veto” on safeguards.
- The Regulatory Accountability Act (RAA) would create hurdles to rule-making similar to the one that kept America from banning asbestos.
These dangerous bills have either already passed the House (RAA) or were placed on Senate Legislative Calendar just this week (REINS).
Why You Should Care?
It’s not political, it’s a matter of safety – these “reforms” will have a broad impact in hampering regulations in a number of areas – all of which pose a danger to our families. The rise of asthma and other respiratory diseases are drastically increased by air pollution. These bills would make it harder to keep our air and water clean. And as a mother of two children who have asthma, this concerns me! One in 10 US children has asthma, the most common chronic disease of childhood. Have air pollutants triggered an asthma attack for my child? You betcha!
And it doesn’t just stop at asthma!
- The RAA would make it difficult or impossible to enforce standards and keep the food in our kids’ lunch boxes safe. Efforts that have been put into place to label for allergens, reduce sodium, eliminate trans fats, remove arsenic and lead from baby food/juice, label GMOs, etc. are all on the chopping block.
- These bills would undermine product safety for nearly every item our children interact with by stalling or killing future protections.
- From asbestos in classrooms to lead in drinking water and even the safety of the school buses, the RAA and REINs Act would make it harder to keep our kids safe in school. Protections to safeguard our children from toxic chemicals would be difficult if impossible to implement under these bills.
- Would you know what to do if locked in the trunk of a car? Thanks to one survivor there is a glow in the dark safety pull inside trunks now, but this lifesaving consumer protection is now in jeopardy.
- What would it mean if there were no protections in place making the toys, products like pacifiers and sippy cups, or furniture you buy for your family safe?
So what do we do?
It’s simple. Take a few minutes out of your day and email your members of Congress via the click-to-email tool on cleanairmomsaction.org . That’s it. It’s that simple.
For more information on how you can help protect your children, you can visit the Clean Air Moms website, Facebook page, Twitter page, Instagram and YouTube page.
yes! yes! Yes!