Weedkiller in your breakfast cereal. Contaminated drinking water. Carcinogenic chemicals in your furniture.
Americans are routinely exposed to dangerous chemicals that have long been banned in countries such as the UK, Germany and France. Of the 40,000 chemicals used in consumer products in the US, according to the EPA, only one percent have been tested for human safety.
With support from the readers, The Guardian aims to raise $150,000 for a six-month project on how these levels of toxicity are impacting our lives. Guardian will explore the worrying health implications of living in an environment that can expose us to chemical contamination on a daily basis.
Your support will enable Guardian to examine the power of the $640bn chemical industry – which has a lobby that’s currently better funded than the NRA – and raise public awareness about its influence. This series will help all to make sense of the complex science and conflicting messages about what’s safe, what’s harmful and what remains unknown.