{"id":830,"date":"2010-07-22T17:41:25","date_gmt":"2010-07-22T22:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/nanotechnology\/?p=830"},"modified":"2026-03-14T13:48:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T18:48:23","slug":"more-than-weather-heating-up-in-dc-rush-waxman-house-bill-puts-tsca-reform-back-on-front-burner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2010\/07\/22\/more-than-weather-heating-up-in-dc-rush-waxman-house-bill-puts-tsca-reform-back-on-front-burner\/","title":{"rendered":"More than weather heating up in DC: Rush-Waxman House bill puts TSCA reform back on front burner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.<\/em><\/p>\n

We’ve just moved another step closer to protecting Americans and our environment from dangerous chemicals.<\/p>\n

The Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010<\/em> (H.R. 5820)<\/a> has been formally introduced by Congressmen Bobby Rush (D-IL) and Henry Waxman (D-CA).\u00a0 The legislation would implement a top-to-bottom overhaul of the outmoded and ineffectual 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Environmental Defense Fund, along with the 250 organizations that comprise the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families<\/a><\/em> coalition, welcome the legislation and promise a vigorous campaign to advance it in Congress<\/a>, along with companion legislation, the Safe Chemicals Act of 2010<\/a><\/em>, sponsored by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).<\/p>\n

Introduction of the House bill represents the culmination of an intensive 3-month process to gather and incorporate feedback on a “discussion draft” that was introduced in mid-April.\u00a0 Staff of the House Energy & Commerce Committee actively solicited and considered input from a wide array of stakeholders \u2013 all sectors of business and industry, health groups, parent groups, the religious community, animal protection organizations, labor, environmental justice and community organizations, and state and national environmental organizations.<\/p>\n

While many of the details of the discussion draft have changed as a result, the new legislation goes a long way toward ameliorating the major structural flaws of TSCA<\/a>.\u00a0 The table below (updated from a version I posted when the discussion draft was released) shows how the new legislation would correct each of the major flaws in TSCA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Currently under TSCA<\/strong><\/td>\nUnder the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010<\/em><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SAFETY DATA<\/span>:\u00a0 Few data call-ins are issued, even fewer chemicals are required to be tested and no minimum data set is required even for new chemicals.<\/td>\nUp-front data call-ins for all chemicals would be required.\u00a0 A minimum data set (MDS) on all new and existing chemicals sufficient to determine safety would be required to be developed and made public.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BURDEN OF PROOF<\/span>:\u00a0 EPA is required to prove harm before it can regulate a chemical.<\/td>\nIndustry would bear the legal burden of proving their chemicals are safe.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ASSESSMENT OF SAFETY<\/span>:\u00a0 No mandate exists to assess the safety of existing chemicals.\u00a0 New chemicals undergo a severely time-limited and highly data-constrained review.<\/td>\nBoth new and existing chemicals would be subject to safety determinations as a condition of entering or remaining on the market, using the best available science that relies on the advice of the National Academy of Sciences.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SCOPE OF ASSESSMENT<\/span>:\u00a0 Where the rare chemical assessment is undertaken, there is no requirement to assess exposure to all sources of exposure to a chemical, or to assess risk to vulnerable populations. No guidance is provided on how to determine whether a chemical presents an “unreasonable risk.”<\/td>\nThe safety standard would require EPA to account for aggregate and cumulative exposures to all uses and sources of a chemical, and to ensure protection of vulnerable populations that may be especially susceptible to chemical effects (e.g., children, the developing fetus) or subject to disproportionately high exposure (e.g., low-income communities living near contaminated sites or chemical production facilities).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
REGULATORY ACTION<\/span>:\u00a0 Even chemicals of highest concern, such as asbestos, have not been able to be regulated under TSCA\u2019s \u201cunreasonable risk\u201d cost-benefit standard.\u00a0 Instead, assessments often drag on indefinitely without conclusion or decision.<\/td>\nChemicals would be assessed against a health-based standard, and deadlines for decisions would be specified.\u00a0 EPA would have authority to restrict production and use or place conditions on any stage of the lifecycle of a chemical needed to ensure safety.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CHEMICALS AND EXPOSURES OF HIGH CONCERN<\/span>:\u00a0 No criteria are provided for EPA to use to identify and prioritize chemicals or exposures of greatest concern, leaving such decisions to case-by-case judgments.<\/td>\nEPA would develop and apply criteria to identify toxic chemicals that persist and build up in the environment and people, and promptly mandate controls to reduce use of and exposure to such chemicals.\u00a0 \u201cHot spots\u201d where people are subject to disproportionately high exposures would be specifically identified and addressed.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
INFORMATION ACCESS<\/span>:\u00a0 Companies are free to claim, often without providing any justification, most information they submit to EPA to be confidential business information (CBI), denying access to the public and even to state and local government.\u00a0 EPA is not required to review such claims, and the claims never expire.<\/td>\nAll CBI claims would have to be justified up front.\u00a0 EPA would be required to review them, and only approved claims would stand.\u00a0 Approved claims would expire after a period of time.\u00a0 Other levels of government would have access to CBI.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
RULEMAKING REQUIREMENTS<\/span>: To require testing or take other actions, EPA must promulgate regulations that take many years and resources to develop.<\/td>\nIn addition to the MDS requirement, EPA would have authority to issue an order rather than a regulation to require reporting of existing data or additional testing.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist. We’ve just moved another step closer to protecting Americans and our environment from dangerous chemicals. The Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010 (H.R. 5820) has been formally introduced by Congressmen Bobby Rush (D-IL) and Henry Waxman (D-CA).\u00a0 The legislation would implement a top-to-bottom overhaul of the outmoded and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,114108],"tags":[39155,39153,39171,39595,5020],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy","category-tsca","tag-cbi","tag-data-requirements","tag-exposure-vs-hazard","tag-safe-chemicals-acts","tag-safer-chemicals-healthy-families"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13639,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions\/13639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}