Toxies viewing parties have taken off!

The 2011 Toxies will be live streaming at viewing parties in households throughout the country (Canada and Australia too!) California, Colorado, Alabama, Texas, New York, New Hampshire – and a satellite event in Minnesota!

Hundreds will watch the Toxies live, cheering and jeering for their favorite Toxies, playing Bad Actor Trivia Bingo, and having fun while spreading the word about dangerous bad actor chemicals and how we can retire them for good.

Join the mania – Sign up to host a Viewing Party today!

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National Resources Defense Council The Natural Resources Defense Council’s purpose is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals and the natural systems on which all life depends.

Center for Environmental Health The Center for Environmental Health protects people from toxic chemicals and promotes business products and practices that are safe for public health and the environment.

Coalition for Clean Air The Coalition for Clean Air is committed to restoring clean, healthy air to all of California and strengthening the environmental movement by promoting broad-based community involvement, advocating responsible public policy and providing technical expertise.

The 2011 Toxies Host CommitteeThe 2011 Toxies Host Committee is made up of many organizations and individuals dedicated to a safer, healthier world.

Perchloroethylene, Perc for short, is well known for keeping your clothes toxic…ahem…dry cleaned. His membership in California’s prestigious Proposition 65 List is just one claim to fame. Don’t be fooled by his charming smile and good looks – that dizziness and nausea you feel when you’re around him might actually be damaging your central nervous system, kidneys, liver, and reproductive system. The industry has lost wardrobe stylists all over town due to their unwillingness to work with Perc and his diva demands.

Perc is used in over 80% of the 35,000 cleaners in the United States, and is most often inhaled by the owners and workers in the dry cleaning industry, which are usually small mom and pop operations. He also leaves behind a toxic stain wherever he works, seeping into the ground and threatening our water supply. Attempts have been made to get rid of this bad actor only to be replaced by other some of his bad actor buddies who pose other serious health threats or contribute to greenhouse gases. Perc and his buddies are tyring to muscle out the next generation of actors trained in the much safer and healthier “wet cleaning” method, but Perc doesn’t want you to find this out!!

Learn more at Coalition for Clean Air and Worksafe.

Actor: Miguel Angel Caballero. Photo by: Patricia Mateos Ballestero

Since Triclosan’s debut role over thirty years ago, the FDA has allowed him to star in personal-care products, but has yet to implement a rule book for this bad boy. Companies cast Triclosan in a vast array of products we use on our skin and in our mouths, and on our babies and kids, even though he builds up in our bodies and has been linked to harm. His ties to cancer, thyroid disruption, and antibiotic-resistant “superbugs,” may have begun to impact his career.
Triclosan has played several roles as an antibacterial hero; fighting germs, mold and odor, but as it turns out, this so-called clean chemical plays dirty. His work has opened many doors for fellow bad actors, such as Dioxin, Methyl Triclosan and Chloroform.  Critics have found that the hype around Triclosan’s supposed ability to prevent illness isn’t fully warranted: Triclosan is no more effective than the timeless performers, Regular Soap and Water.

• Triclosan’s leading role is in approximately 75% of liquid hand soaps in the United States, but he also regularly appears in dish soaps, toothpaste, cosmetics, antiperspirants, cutting boards, toys, fabrics and other everyday products. Despite his reputation as a “squeaky clean” actor, Triclosan has been negatively impacting the health of humans and our aquatic ecosystem.
• Triclosan knows just how to get under his audience’s skin!  He is found in most American bodies and in 75% of urine samples in a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• The European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety determined that even small amounts of Triclosan can set off antibiotic resistance in bacteria, and Canada has banned Triclosan from consumer products.
• In 2009, Beyond Pesticides and Food & Water Watch, along with 86 other nonprofit groups filed a petition with the U.S. EPA asking the agency to consider banning Triclosan in consumer products. In 2011 the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and other environmental health organizations have asked the EPA and the FDA to ban Triclosan from household products, and asked consumers to take the Triclosan-Free Pledge.

Actor: Kevin Carter. Photo by: Patricia Mateos Ballestero.

Oh Halogenated Flame Retardant. She’s a killer hiding behind a mask of good intention. Relaxing in our homes all day, every day, then running in, pretending she can stop a fire! Save children! Keep your lit cigarette from setting your mattress ablaze! But let’s be honest, HFR is a mess — a hot mess. She’s so clingy and needy, hanging on everything and getting all up in your business, covering you and anything that crawls from babies to kittens.  Laying your head on a HFR laced mattress or couch can be toxic to your brain, endocrine and reproductive systems and has detrimental effects on your thyroid and liver function. Snap, did I do that? Yes, HFR, yes you did. She shows up in car seats, strollers, nursing pillows, cribs and sleep positioners and leaves a trail of toxic footprints in her wake. Like Wonder Woman, HFR’s producers have tried various makeovers to reinvent her image over and over again. But she’s still the same old HFR underneath all of that hair dye and spandex.  When a fire does catch, she’ll fill the place with smoke and toxic gasses, and you’ll be lucky to escape. As soon as HFR spots those hunky firefighters on the scene, she is all too happy to jump in and cause a hot mess for their health too.

• Although best known for their classic roles, hitting home in the foam of furniture, curtains, televisions, carpets and mattresses, these old-timers are especially fond of the younger generation and can be found in many children’s products, including car seats, strollers, nursing pillows and their favorite late-night performances in cribs and sleep positioners.
• The ultimate chameleons leave quite a mark, and people associate them with the roles they play in toxicity to the brain, endocrine and reproductive systems and thyroid and liver function.
• With American babies born pre-polluted, flame retardants have had an easy career by capturing their audience early on and accumulating over the years.  Not all can have lifetime fans!

Actor: Iliana Carter. Photo by: Francisco Cortinas, Patricia Mateos Ballestero.

Perchlorate likes to get things started with a bang! She’s been typecast in action roles starring as an oxidizer in rocket fuel, explosives, airbags and fireworks. As ammonium perchlorate, she is also a major component of solid rocket fuel. Her performances as a bad actor chemical interfere with iodide uptake into the thyroid gland, causing hypothyroidism in mothers and negatively impacting proper childhood development such as decreased learning capability.

While no one denies Perchlorate’s ability to light up the sky and screen, her “special effects” aren’t contained…she’s made her way into the drinking water for tens of millions of Californians, and into the groundwater or soil of 43 states.

• Perchlorate adversely affects human health by interfering with iodide uptake into the thyroid gland. In adults, the thyroid gland helps regulate the metabolism by releasing hormones, while in children the thyroid gland helps in proper development.
• In the first study to look for perchlorate in California supermarket milk, Environmental Working Group found perchlorate in 31 out of 32 samples purchased from grocery stores in Los Angeles and Orange counties and in all 32 samples of milk collected in Alameda, Sacramento, and San Joaquin counties.
• Perchlorate has been manufactured at two facilities near Henderson, Nevada from World War II to the present. Considerable amounts of perchlorate were discharged in the liquid wastes from the facilities into unlined evaporation ponds. The groundwater in the vicinity of the industrial complex has been contaminated and is seeping into the Colorado River.

Learn more at Rocketdyne Cleanup Coalition and Environmental Working Group.

Actress: Denise Duffield. Photo by: Patricia Mateos Ballestero