Why Reform Chemicals Policy?

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is the U.S. policy governing chemicals. It was enacted in 1976 and it has not lived up to its name. TSCA set up a system to identify risks associated with other chemicals and to mitigate those risks. The law immediately grandfathered in 62,000 chemicals already in commerce — keeping them on the market with no safety testing. TSCA also made The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the governmental body responsible for oversight — EPA had to show that an existing chemical presented an “unreasonable risk” to human health or the environment in order to regulate it, but it was not granted the authority to ask for any new hazard or risk information. If it chose to restrict a chemical after such a finding, it had to choose the “least burdensome” option for regulation. For proposed new chemicals the agency could demand certain hazard and risk data and issue restrictions, but only under tight timelines that defaulted to industry in the absence of agency action. Since passage, the list of chemicals in the “TSCA Inventory” — chemicals legally allowed to be used in commerce in the United States — has swelled to roughly 82,000, with EPA testing completed on fewer than 300 chemicals.


NEW! Listen to Andy Igrejas, Safer Chemical, Healthy Families National Campaign Director, discussing chemical policy reform on NPR's A World of Possibilities.