Health, Taken Seriously

This is what my congresswoman wrote in response to the letter I sent her:

Thank you for contacting me about your concern with the regulation of toxic chemicals.  I appreciate the opportunity to learn your views and share mine.

I am concerned with the number of chemicals used in commerce today without sufficient toxicity testing.  The Centers for Disease Control has found evidence of exposure to many chemicals in the bodies of American adults and children, some of which do not have any toxicity data.  Of these, it is impossible to know which are safe or which are associated with adverse health conditions.

Our current statute, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976, has not been successful in protecting the public from exposure to toxic chemicals.  When this legislation was passed, existing substances were allowed to remain in use under a presumption that they were safe unless proven harmful.  However, there are few incentives for industry to conduct toxicity tests, and the federal government does not require testing unless there is an indication of a hazard.  In addition, many data are considered “confidential business information,” and are not released to the public.  In fact, in over 30 years the Environmental Protection Agency has restricted only five substances from production or use under TSCA.

It is fairly well established that this law needs to be reexamined.  Last Congress, the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act of 2008, H.R.6100/S.3040, was introduced as an improvement on TSCA, but was not voted on.  This Congress, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection held a hearing entitled “Revisiting the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976″ on February 26, 2009.  The legislation has not yet been re-introduced this Congress.  I look forward to seeing the bill and working to modernize protections for public health and the environment.

Filed under: Chemicals on February 6th, 2010