WP: Chemical Industry Lends Support to Reform

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Chemical Industry Lends Support to Reform

Leaders Willing to Give EPA Health Data, Which Would Allow Safety to Be

Determined

By Lyndsey Layton

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, August 9, 2009

In a reversal, chemical industry leaders said last week they are joining

environmentalists, public health groups and consumer advocates in seeking more

robust federal regulation of chemicals.

For the first time, chemical manufacturers said they are willing to furnish the

Environmental Protection Agency with health and exposure data they have gathered

that are related to their chemicals, and to allow the agency to determine

whether the chemicals are safe to use.

They said tougher government regulation is the best way to reassure consumers

about the health impact of various chemicals.

" The fundamental duty of the chemical industry and government that regulates it

is to make sure those products are safe, " said Cal Dooley, president and chief

executive of the American Chemistry Council.

The industry has long insisted that the 1976 federal law governing chemicals,

the Toxic Substances Control Act, has been working well.

But a number of critics, including the Government Accountability Office, say the

law is weak and does not enable the government to ensure the safety of thousands

of chemicals that have been introduced into consumer goods and the environment.

This year, the GAO flagged chemical regulation as an urgent priority that

Congress and the White House should address.

Dooley and top executives from several companies, including Dow, said the

industry wants Congress to give the EPA new authority and resources to ensure

the safety of chemicals used in such things as furniture, cellphones and grocery

bags.

" This is a radical departure from where industry was a few months or a year

ago, " said Denison, a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense

Fund. " We're getting to a point where industry feels it needs to play nicer cop

here, if they're going to have a seat at the table and a voice in determining

what they see as happening, which is reform. "

The industry leaders said they want a strong federal policy because, in its

absence, states and even localities are passing laws to restrict certain

chemicals, making it nearly impossible for national companies to comply with a

patchwork of rules.

" You're seeing more and more activity at the state level in terms of bans of

certain chemicals or states trying to institute their own chemical management

systems, " Dooley said. " It's a reflection of their lack of confidence in the

current regulatory system to assess the safety of those chemicals. "

Under current laws, the government has little or no information about the health

hazards or risks of most of the 80,000 chemicals on the U.S. market today.

When the Toxic Substances Control Act was passed, it exempted from regulation

about 62,000 chemicals already in commercial use. Chemicals developed after the

law's passage did not have to be tested for safety. Instead, companies were

asked to report information on the health effects of their compounds, and the

government would decide whether additional tests were needed.

In more than 30 years, the EPA has required additional studies for about 200

chemicals. The statute has made banning or restricting chemicals extremely

difficult, and the EPA has banned just five chemicals since 1976.

Under the law, the government cannot act unless a chemical poses a health

threat. However, the EPA cannot force companies to provide the kind of

information that would show a health risk.

The hurdles are so high that the agency has been unable to ban asbestos, widely

acknowledged as a likely carcinogen and barred in more than 30 countries.

Instead, the EPA relies on the industry to cease voluntarily production of

suspect chemicals.

Sen. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) plans to reintroduce a bill in September that

would overhaul U.S. chemical regulation. It would require the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention to use bio-monitoring studies to identify

industrial chemicals that have become so common that they show up in the blood

of newborn babies, then decide whether those chemicals should be restricted or

banned. A study by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group found an average of

200 industrial chemicals in the umbilical cords of newborns.

The bill, known as the Kid-Safe Chemical Act, would require chemical

manufacturers to provide health and safety information on chemicals and prove

that they do not pose an unacceptable health risk before they could be used in

products.

Dooley said the chemical trade group's declaring support for reform improves the

chances that Lautenberg's bill will advance in Congress this session.

" If you can find greater alignment between environmental, consumer groups and

industry, that can have an influence on Congressional scheduling of legislation

to reform the law, " Dooley said.