The Real Chemical Policy in America

In 1976, the U.S. Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which granted our government the authority to evaluate and regulate industrial chemicals. Their stated mission was to limit the use of those chemicals proved to have a high hazard risk to human health or the environment. It was regarded as a great public health victory and the first such regulation of it’s kind.

But the TSCA came with an enormous loophole negotiated by the all-powerful chemical industry. Any chemical already on the market before 1979 was excluded from either screening or restriction. In effect, this clause ‘grandfathered in’ over 62,000 industrial chemicals, among which were thousands of highly toxic substances with evidence of being carcinogenic, neuro-toxic and unquestionably bad for the environment. Now, over thirty years later, 95 percent of all chemicals in circulation have never undergone any testing for toxicity or their impact on the environment.

It’s clear that the TSCA, has acted more to protect the profits of the chemical industry then the American public or the environment. Efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require testing of some 200 chemicals in response to public outcry, has only resulted in some slight degree of regulation on five chemicals.

Asbestos was determined to be a ‘known carcinogen’ by the EPA – Environmental Protection Agency, and they tried to severely restrict it’s use.  But the chemical industry challenged the EPA’s ruling and a federal court supported their claim that asbestos didn’t meet the TSCA’s requirements. Those requirements included:

1. that the dangers of the chemical should exceed its perceived usefulness.
2. That the EPA heavily weigh the ‘costs to industry’ and any regulation should constitute the “least burdensome alternative” for eliminating the “unreasonable risk” of exposure.

With this wording in place, and the federal courts support of the TSCA contract, the EPA has been unable to ban a single chemical since that decision. A year later, asbestos was back in business.

Another little known slight of hand that the TSCA uses to get chemicals into production without testing, is the fact that exposure and toxicity testing is supposed to be done by the manufacturer themselves and delivered to the EPA for approval 90 days before it goes into the consumers hands. Theoretically, this data would enable the EPA to determine whether regulation is warranted before a chemical hits the market. But according to the EPA’s own figures, 85 percent of the data submitted contain no evaluation of public health impact whatsoever and toxicity reports are routinely inaccurate.

In fact, our real government policy regarding toxic industrial chemicals has been to support their promulgation and wide spread use without regard to their impact on human health or the environment. The inaction of both the TSCA and EPA have allowed a veritable epidemic of diseases and toxic pollution  to explode in America.  In recent years, scientific reviews independent of the chemical industry, show overwhelming data linking various chemicals to cancers, neurologic, reproductive, auto immune disease and developmental abnormalities.

It is time for a fundamental reform of these agencies.

However, overhaul is going to be hotly contested by the corporations linked to the chemical industry. They also have more leverage now then ever since the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations can essentially contribute an unlimited amount to political campaigns to protect their ‘pro-business’ agenda.

Yet, there is a ray of hope in this battle. The European Union has been working on a new chemical regulation policy called REACH—Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals. REACH promises a radical change in how chemicals are evaluated, and how production decisions around the world will be made from now on.

Under REACH, all industrial chemicals will have to be registered, evaluated for toxicity and authorized before being permitted to remain in use. Toxins, which are known to cause cancer, alter genes and affect fertility, will be the first to be removed from the market unless producers are able to prove that they can be “adequately controlled.”

REACH also extends its influence to the consumer goods that utilize these chemicals; thus “downstream users,” from the building industry to cosmetics and car manufacturers, will be forced to find out and report what chemicals are in their products and what effects they have on human health and the environment. The plastics and petrochemical industry is likely to be very hard hit as many of their plastics have already been identified as toxic for both humans and the environment and their chemicals are in everything we use. If they want to continue to export their products into the E.U. market (which now exceeds the US market both in population and wealth) they will have to conform to a much higher standard.

Unfortunately, the flip side to the new regulations in Europe is that America will become the dumping ground for all the toxic products no longer allowed in the E.U. Like we exported our DDT to countries where it wasn’t regulated, our lax standards will make us the world’s premier market for toxic products.

The TSCA has successfully argued that the cost of finding alternatives to toxic chemicals is far too great a burden for their super rich industry to bear. However, the E.U. estimates that REACH would cost European chemical manufacturers a mere $4 billion over fourteen years, or less than 1% of their combined yearly revenue. The E.U. further calculated that these expenses would be repaid many times over by the resulting health benefits. According to E.U. estimates, compliance with REACH would prevent some 4,500 occupational cancers each year and reduce European health-care costs from ailments related to chemical exposure by $70 billion over the next thirty years.

Also, by giving consumers honest information about the health risks associated with various products, it has already begun to generate new research to produce safer chemicals. E.U. chemists have already come up with alternatives to some of the most toxic chemicals currently in use, and its environmental initiatives have spawned billions of dollars in green technology. Oh that Obama would live up to his promises and do likewise here and regenerate a vibrant and safe chemical industry with millions of new jobs that can grow into the next century. One can hope, and one can write to one’s Congressperson. It really is time for change.

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