As you will find detailed in The Hundred Year Lie, chemical manufacturers commonly hide the identity of product ingredients from the public using the protections afforded by trade secrecy laws.The latest obstacle to the public's right to know the potential chemical threats in products comes from the paint and varnish industry.

A New York state environmental agency is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to force the release of a list of smog-causing chemicals found in paints and varnishes. The EPA is siding with paint manufacturers that contend their chemical ingredients are trade secrets and should be protected from public scrutiny.

Without this data, New York and other states cannot draw up comprehensive plans to comply with the federal Clean Air Act, which is administered by the EPA. Fumes produced by some toxins in paints and varnishes are thought to be contributors to asthma and other health malaies.

In today's corporate and technological environment, any manufacturer has the capacity to reverse-engineer the products made by competitors to discover their ingredients. So who are ingredients really being hidden from? Those of us who use the products.