Volunteers needed across the UK to help the campaign - call today!
On Wednesday 30th October the environmental group Greenpeace will be swapping its high speed rigid inflatable boats for vacuum cleaners and will set off to clean 100 homes across the UK
Greenpeace is asking for volunteers to have their homes vacuum cleaned so that we can collect dust samples, which will be sent to independent laboratories for analysis. We will be looking for chemicals that have been identified as the some of the most dangerous around in their potential for long-term health and environmental impacts.
Governments already know that chemicals are out of control - everybody now carries as many as 300 industrial chemicals in their bodies that their great grandparents would not have had in theirs. Many of these chemicals make their way into our bodies not from factory chimneys, but are brought into the home in everyday products - detergents, electrical goods, furniture even clothes, shampoo and makeup.
The European Union has proposed far-reaching new legislation that will aim to protect people from this modern chemical onslaught. But the public debate about this legislation, and about the extent to which we are all contaminated by unwanted chemicals is about to begin - because the chemical industry opposes greater controls.
The public must now decide whether they want greater protection or not. The Greenpeace vacuum cleaning project will help show exactly what sort of chemicals are getting into our everyday lives and offer the public a chance to do something about it.
A spokesperson for Greenpeace said, 'We are coming into daily contact with more and more industrial chemicals - we need the help of volunteers across the UK to help Greenpeace find out exactly which chemicals are getting into our homes. This evidence will help us to present the case to government that current laws are not protecting us.'
Notes for editors:
- Greenpeace can hoover your home or studio, or the home of one of your reporters or DJ's. Results will be presented in February 2003. We will be testing collected dust for brominated flame retardants, chlorinated paraffins, Organic tin compounds, alkyl phenols and phthalates all of which are currently listed as priority hazardous chemicals. The laboratories will also produce a "screen" which lists other substances detected.
- Photographs are available on request.
