White House Undermined Chemical Tests, Report Says

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White House Undermined Chemical Tests, Report Says

By: Becker

The New York Times

April 2, 2004

A report released by a House committee on Thursday

describes how the Bush administration worked with the

United States chemical industry to undermine a

European plan that would require all manufacturers to

test industrial chemicals for their effect on public

health before they were sold in Europe.

The administration had said publicly that the proposal

last year would threaten the $20 billion in chemicals

that the United States exports to Europe each year

because the cost of testing would be prohibitive. Five

years in the making, the proposal, which was revised

and is still under consideration, would shift the

burden to prove the safety of chemicals onto

manufacturers instead of governments.

Behind the scenes, the administration was working with

the chemical industry to devise a plan to undermine

the proposal, according to e-mail messages and

documents released in the report.

The Bush administration said the proposal was unsound

science and an abuse of regulatory authority, a

similar accusation leveled against Europe for its

demand that genetically modified food be labeled as

such before it is marketed.

European officials said the testing plan was necessary

because of an increase in health problems like

allergies and male infertility. The costs of cleaning

up damage from chemicals like asbestos is already in

the billions of dollars, they said.

The office of the United States trade representative

asked the industry to develop themes the

administration could use to discourage the European

Union from adopting the new testing program, according

to an e-mail message dated April 4, 2003, and obtained

by the House investigator.

Novelli, the assistant United States trade

representative for Europe, was cited in the e-mail

message, which read: " At the last meeting, had

tasked the industries to come up with 'themes' for

their concerns about the proposed legislation. The

chemical industry had done a list of themes dealing

with the E.U. process. "

Other e-mail messages describe the role of Secretary

of State Colin L. , top Commerce Department

officials and officials from the Environmental

Protection Agency in lobbying European countries,

singling out several countries, especially Sweden and

Finland.

One e-mail message from the trade officials urged the

chemical industry to " get to the Swedes and Finns and

neutralize their environmental arguments. "

Mills, the spokesman for the United States

trade representative, said Thursday that the

administration estimated that " one million jobs are on

the line - you're darned right we raised our concerns

with the European Union. "

" The regulations would not help the environment

because they were unworkable, " Mr. Mills said. " We

want regulations that protect the environment and

don't stifle U.S. jobs and economic growth. "

The report, requested by Representative Henry A.

Waxman, Democrat of California, says that American

environmental groups and the general public were kept

out of the administration's closed discussions and

strategy sessions.

" We were frozen out, " said ph Digangi of the

Environmental Health Fund, an advocacy group cited in

the report. " The administration went directly to the

U.S. chemical industry and adopted their position

whole cloth. "

Gooch, the spokesman for the European

Commission in the United States, said of the report:

" There would seem to be an inordinate weight given to

only one side of a complex argument. Significant

concerns about the environment and public health seem

to be totally absent from their policy. "

The lobbying efforts of the United States appear to

have succeeded. The European Union revised the

proposal, known as Registration, Evaluation and

Authorization of Chemicals, or Reach.

Five months after trade officials sent e-mail messages

discussing how to persuade senior European officials

to demand new cost-benefit analyses, France, Germany

and Britain wrote to the president of the European

Commission requesting a new assessment of the effects

that the program would have on the industry.

The American Chemistry Council, a trade group, noted

in its 2003 annual report that it had " rallied

opposition to the draft proposal, including a major

intervention by the U.S. government. "

" The questions the U.S. government is raising about

the global impact of Reach are perfectly sensible, "

said Greg Lebedev, the president and chief executive

of the American Chemistry Council. " American

companies have a stake in Europe as investors,

manufacturers and suppliers. "

Under current rules, about 99 percent of the total

volume of chemicals sold on the markets have not been

subjected to testing requirements.

One subject of the lobbying proposal was Margot

Wallstrom, commissioner for the environment at the

European Union. In an April e-mail message, an

official of the trade representative said: " But who

will take on Wallstrom - the answer is only other

ministers or heads of state. The U.S.G. plans to send

in our ambassadors to member states and commission to

make our case. "

Ms. Wallstrom said that the reform proposal was

necessary because " there is no control whatsoever of

the 400 million tons of chemicals sold in the European

Union each year. "

Mr. sent several cables on the issue. In one,

he warned that $8.8 billion in products were at risk

of being banned or severely restricted under Europe's

proposed system, a figure from a study by the

chemistry council. His cables were sent to trading

partners in Latin America and Asia as well as Europe

to oppose the proposal.

The main chemical regulation in the United States is

the 1976 Toxic Substance Control Act, which has been

widely criticized for being weak and too deferential

to industry. The vast majority of nonpesticide

chemicals are not subject to any required screening

before introduction here.