Who should be held financially responsible for environmental damage from use of conventional cleaning and body

Question

care products?

Chemicals found in household products like antibacterial soap and plastic bottles are found in sewage water that is discharged into San Francisco Bay, posing a threat to wildlife and humans, according to new data....The inspectors found three types of chemicals -- phthalates, bisphenol A and triclosan. All are suspected of interfering with hormone systems of humans and wildlife..."We're involved because we know that these compounds are out there, and we cannot treat them in the wastewater stream," said Charles Hardy, EBMUD spokesman.

The companies who make the products.

The consumers who use the products.

All of us through taxation to clean up the environment from continued use of toxic products?

Answer 1

End user is always liable. Don't believe it? Go out and break a mercury thermometer in your home and call the EPA. They will send you the cleanup bill.

Bury some paint and other materials in your backyard and let it leach into the groundwater. This is not the fault of the paint manufacturer. They tell you how to dispose of household hazardous materials.

Answer 2

Clean up is the least economically and environmentally effective way to deal with hazards like this; prevention is far superior. Ingredients known to be harmful or to develop into harmful substances after disposal should not be allowed in household or industrial products. However, that's something to think about from here on out. We still need to finance the clean-up of the pollutants that are there now. We obviously cannot have each user individually dole out funds to cover his/her part in it, nor is it fair (or likely to be supported) to require businesses to pay for clean-up of substances that they did not directly introduce into the environment. Rather, we need increased taxes to enable tax dollar funding to support clean up, and then enforced regulation of ingredients in the future to prevent more clean-up.

Answer 3

in my opinion, what difference does it matter. You and me are going to die anyway. Trying to save the environment for the next generation is ridiculous, you are not going to see it anymore after you die.. Live for today, and let tomorrow be.