What do people think about chemicals and chemical regulations?
To better understand what people know about harmful chemicals in their environment, PRHE commissioned a nationwide online survey, conducted by Lake Research Partners, which found that voters are nearly unanimous in their belief that
government should require products be proven safe before companies are allowed to put them on the market. The survey consisted of 1,200 registered voters with oversamples of Black, Latinx, Asia American Pacific Islander, and Gen Z voters.
Survey Goals
Learn what people know about harmful chemicals
Learn what people think about the regulatory process
Learn what this means for our work
Top Findings
- 92% of voters agree and 63% of voters strongly agree that the government should require products be proven safe before companies are allowed to put them on the market.
- 93% of voters agree and 62% strongly agree that companies should do a better job of removing harmful chemicals from consumer products.
- 88% agree that companies should do a better job of removing plastic and plastic packaging from consumer products.
- 76% are concerned about the impact that chemicals and plastics have on climate change.
- 54% say chemical regulations are not strong enough, while 21% say they are about right and 10% say they are too strong.
- 89% support (56% strongly support) the goal of the Toxic Substances Control Act to make it easier to limit or ban harmful chemicals and better protect vulnerable populations like pregnant women, children, and people who live near polluting factories.
- 93% agree (57% strongly) that it is important to remove harmful chemicals from where we live, work and go to school even if it increases the costs for some products and similar numbers agree that it is important for companies to keep harmful chemicals out of everyday products, even if it increases costs for some products.
