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OTTAWA — When Miriam Diamond’s son was a competitive gymnast, she tried to get toxic flame retardants removed from the foam blocks and landing mats her son was exposed to for 20 hours or more every week.

Diamond, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Toronto, was able to show the concentration of the chemicals in the air and the dust in the gym, was 20 times higher than in the average home.

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Europe and the United States recognized the chemicals were toxic. Canada, however, did not, and thus nobody would fund her attempts to get rid of the materials. Without a federal government toxic designation, nobody would listen to get them removed.

It is with that in mind that Diamond signed her name to a letter which will be sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today, asking him to seriously consider making changes to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act that would put the onus on companies to show their products are safe before they’re ever put on the market.