Online Toolkit

How to Have a Safe Home Session

So you’re sick of the toxic imports and other dangerous products that are threatening our family because of lousy trade and regulatory laws. What can you do? How about gathering a small group of friends, family, neighbors and co-workers to your home for a USW Safe Home Session? You can help them make their homes safer and give them tools to do something about toxic trade.

Safe Home Sessions have three main goals:
1. To clean your home of lead and other toxic imports
2. To clean your communities of lead and other toxic imports
3. To work to get our trade laws fixed to prevent such toxic imports in the future

If you are a USW member, contact your local Women of Steel coordinator who can help you organize a Safe Home Session in your area. If you don’t know who your coordinator is, contact Emily Jefferson at 412-562- 2443. If you are not a USW member, please check out our Associate Member program and consider joining us in this and other important fights.

The USW’s Health, Safety and Environment Department has designed a program for Safe Home Sessions. Click here to download the a guide for your get together. You will need:

Three colors of Post-It notes (Yellow- Toys) (Purple -Jewelry) (Green-Other)
Flip chart/ easel
Black markers
List of sample recall Items

Here are some tips for a successful Safe Home Session:

Send out “Save the Date” reminders. In these busy times, give people plenty of notice that you are having a gathering to talk about toxic trade where you will provide tips for making homes safer.
Be sure to have some open space so people can bring toys or other products for testing and to accommodate a crowd.
Provide light refreshments and folders with the following information that you can download here:

Information about the latest product recalls.
Information about the USW’s Stop Toxic Imports campaign (See the flyer PDFs below)
Information about toxic trade and what people can do to help

A check list of how people can become involved.

Links to or a printout of local lawmakers and their contact info. please also add this: In Canada, search the Canadian House of Commons.

Sample letter to lawmakers.

If you can, have an Internet-enabled computer accessible and go to www.stoptoxicimports.org and follow the links to have everyone sign the online petition.

Call to a local lawmaker’s office and let them know you have a group of people in your home who are concerned about dangerous imports. Use our sample letter as a guide if you need tips for what to say. You can find your local lawmakers by going here http://www.house.gov/writerep/ and here http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm. In Canada, search the Canadian House of Commons here.