Chemical Safety Improvement Act
The Chemical Safety Improvement Act is bipartisan legislation introduced in the United States Congress to reform and modernize the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which regulates the introduction of new or already existing chemicals. The legislation, introduced on May 22, 2013 as S. 1009,[1] by Senator David Vitter (R-LA) and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). After Lautenberg's death, Senator Tom Udall took over as Democratic leader on the bill. [2] The legislation has more than 26 bipartisan co-sponsors.
Currently, the TSCA requires the Environmental Protection Agency to test a chemical if evidence is found that the chemical is dangerous. When the TSCA was enacted in 1976, it grandfathered in over 60,000 of chemicals already in use, making them exempt from review.[3] The law also sets a high bar for the EPA to meet in order to regulate any chemicals the agency deems dangerous. The agency has not made a serious attempt to ban a dangerous chemical since a court struck down the EPA’s effort to ban asbestos in 1991.[4]
Over 84,000 chemicals are registered for use in the United States. Of those, 200 have been tested and five have been banned as “dangerous.” [5] Because of this inaction, individual states have started to ban particular chemicals, creating a difficult situation in which manufacturers have to comply with different standards in different states. Most notably, California has its own standard for manufacturers, California Proposition 65.
The Chemical Safety Improvement Act would allow the EPA to regulate chemicals by:
- Requiring the EPA to review all chemicals currently in use and rate them as either a “high” or “low” priority based on their perceived risk to human health and/or the environment. High priority chemicals would then be subjected to further review.
- Eliminating the long regulatory process to obtain information from companies regarding their chemicals.
- Granting the EPA additional flexibility to take action on unsafe chemicals—the agency would have a range of options from requiring labeling to enacting outright bans.
- Requiring the EPA to declare chemicals “likely to be safe” before they can come to market.
References
- ↑ http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113s1009is/pdf/BILLS-113s1009is.pdf
- ↑ "Vitter takes his Chemical Safety bill to House committee hearing". The Advocate. Retrieved 2014-03-03.
- ↑ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1314945/
- ↑ "After 37 years, U.S. chemical-safety laws may finally get an overhaul". Washington Post. 22 May 2013. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
- ↑ http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d/2852c60dc0f65c688525769c0068b219!OpenDocument