Toxic use reduction legislation will reduce or eliminate toxic chemicals resulting in less cancer-causing substances, as well as other toxic substances, in the environment:

• Ontario ranks highest among the provinces in environmental carcinogen release.
   
• In North America, Ontario is second only to Texas in the tonnes of toxic chemicals being released into the air and water and going to landfill sites.
   
• With Massachusetts’ Toxics Use Reduction Act, companies reduced their toxic waste by 64 per cent and their off-site releases to the environment by 91 per cent.

Toxic use reduction legislation reduces risk to the health of workers and the public:

• Cancer, asthma, infertility, learning problems and birth defects have been increasingly linked with our exposure to toxic chemicals, although more research is needed.
   
• In Ontario, every year the number of newly diagnosed cancers increases by 2.5 per cent; it is projected that in year 2020, there will be 91,000 new cancers diagnosed.
   
• It is important to note that environmental and occupational carcinogens disproportionately affect certain sectors of Ontario’s labour force. For example, it is estimated that the number of Ontario workers exposed to asbestos 30 years ago to be about 16,641. The largest single group (32%) worked in the construction industry, 25% worked in non-metal mining (mostly asbestos; four asbestos mines operated in Ontario at one time, employing about 3,500 workers, and most ceased operations by the early 1980s), 22% worked in services such as automotive parts repair, 6% worked in the manufacture of products containing asbestos, and 3% worked in each of petroleum refineries, and wholesale and retail trade.

Toxic use reduction legislation can save companies money and makes them more competitive internationally:

• Massachusetts’s companies saved $14 million by changing to more efficient processes and safer chemicals.
   
• European legislation sets high environmental standards that Ontario companies must meet if they want to be competitive and export to the world’s largest market.