Our hat is off to U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe and her colleagues on the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee for finally advancing a bill that will better help protect U.S. consumers from toxic chemicals in the products they buy.

Cheers to Snowe, a Republican, and to Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., for getting out of committee a truly bipartisan bill that updates the 36-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act.

It’s a sad commentary that the U.S. Congress has been unable to modernize a law whose primary purpose is to protect the public from dangerous chemicals, in particular those used to make flame retardants for furniture and other products.

The committee’s vote came on the heels of an oversight hearing in Washington showing the industry that makes these chemicals has been distorting the science and engaging in deceptive lobbying practices to protect its bottom line.

These chemicals, which actually do little to stop fires and can make fires more toxic, have been found in the blood of many Americans. Particularly disturbing is their presence in the blood of pregnant women, as discovered by a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bio-monitoring program.

These chemicals are also used in food packaging. Ingesting even trace amounts can result in health problems for children and adults.

The bill, as it left committee, would at a minimum require manufacturing firms and chemical-makers to fully disclose the hazards associated with their products. It also would require chemical companies to demonstrate fully the safety of their products by using the best science available and not just a public relations “junk science” marketing campaign.

“A law enacted in 1976 cannot effectively regulate our modern chemical industry,” Snowe said on passage of the bill. We couldn’t agree more, and can only wonder what’s taken our federal lawmakers so long to get on the bandwagon.

Maine lawmakers, including Senate President Kevin Raye, R-Perry, and House Minority Leader Emily Cain, D-Orono, should likewise be proud of their advocacy for this bill. Together, Cain and Raye advanced a joint resolution urging action on this important topic.

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Everyone loves a happy ending, and the story of the successful resuscitation by Auburn firefighters of Billy Sawtelle, who suffered a heart attack while dining at an Auburn eatery on his birthday, warmed our hearts. Sawtelle, happy to be alive and grateful to his rescuers, met with the firefighters, including Mark Tripp, and the United Ambulance paramedics who saved his life.

“We did lose him,” Sawtelle’s wife Kim said. “We are very thankful and grateful.”

Sawtelle’s 8-year-old son, Logan, was with him that day and witnessed his dad basically dying before his eyes. That horror was erased by the quick-acting firefighters and paramedics.

But their kindness and care didn’t end with loading him into the ambulance. The rescuers followed up with a visit to the ICU and when Sawtelle stopped in to thank them in person at the fire station, they had a special gift for him.

The firefighters presented him with a T-shirt, like the one they had to tear off him to save his life.

It was one that matched those he and his son were wearing the day he suffered the heart attack. Talk about true class.

Like Sawtelle’s wife, Kim, we, too, are thankful and grateful to have in our midst people such as Tripp and the other firefighters and paramedics who saved Sawtelle’s life.

Cheers to all.

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The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and the editorial board.