Some environmental and health groups, such as the Breast Cancer Fund, have opposed it, while still others, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, were noncommittal. James Inhofe, R-Okla., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, May 19, 2016, during a news conference to discuss biparti. Progressive champion Sen. Tom Udall found an opportunity to work with staunch conservative Sen. David Vitter (La.) and Democratic Sen. On its merits, the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act should pass by acclamation.
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(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite). “It’s something that, through the art of compromise, we’ve settled on with the environmental community and the public health community”.
Sen. Udall championed reform of the nation’s broken toxic chemicals law. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the top Democrat on the Senate environment panel, had argued especially forcefully against language in the Senate bill that would have kept existing state chemical regulations on the books, but reduced the states’ ability to issue new regulations in the future.
The normally divided Congress got together this week to pass a major overhaul of the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, giving the Environmental Protection Agency broad new authority to regulate chemicals in millions of products American use every day.
The House passage by a 403-12 vote is a significant step for the bill after years of legislative work, negotiations and wrangling. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the senior Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“As a chemical distributor and manufacturer with ties to southern IL, we are all too aware that the current TSCA law on the books is outdated and broken”, said Patrick Hawkins, CEO of Hawkins, Inc., which has facilities in Centralia.
Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) noted that the current law has made it hard for the EPA to regulate “even substances that are known to cause cancer, such as asbestos”.
Supporters say the bill would clear up a hodgepodge of state rules and update and improve a toxic-chemicals law that has remained unchanged for 40 years.
Probably the most concerning thing to Landrigan and Faber is the bill’s pre-emption of the states’ ability to regulate toxic chemicals. The vote sends the bill to the Senate, where it’s expected to be approved and sent to President Obama.
U.S. Rep. John Shimkus Final vote on the TSCA bill in the U.S. House of Representatives on May 24. “But the proliferation of state level chemical restrictions-and, in some cases, standalone regulatory programs-was really becoming a major challenge for manufacturers”. The bill is seen as a compromise between the chemical industry and public health and environmental advocates.
In the absence of federal action to protect people from chemicals such as BPA and fire retardants, lawmakers in ME and other states have taken action to restrict these chemicals.
The bill allows the EPA to evaluate the safety of tens of thousands of older chemicals that were impossible to regulate under existing law and strengthens the agency’s hand in reviewing new chemicals. The bill’s chemical testing provision is more of an amalgam of the two bills and negotiators agreed to leave several sections of TSCA (e.g., exports and imports) largely untouched, as the House bill had done.
In their statement Monday, Pallone, Pelosi and Hoyer said that Lautenberg “dedicated his career” to fixing the toxic-substance law, adding: “We honor his memory in this bipartisan legislation bearing his name”. It also would make more information about chemicals available to the public, much of which has been kept confidential – even from health professionals – by companies claiming trade secrets.
The “glacial pace” of chemical reviews envisioned by the bill and the inadequate funding means that the EPA will be unable to provide consumers with the “proactive prevention that so many consumers are seeking”, Leonardo Trasande, an associate professor of pediatrics at New York University, said in an interview with High Country News.
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Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS, said: “This bill can save hundreds of thousands of animals from having harsh chemicals rubbed into their skin, forced down their throats and dropped in their eyes”.
