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Written by Elizabeth Jones

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Toxic Substances Control Act

When the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) passed in 1976, it was heralded as an equalamong the other sweeping environmental laws of the era. The Clean Air Act, Clean WaterAct, CERCLA, and the Endangered Species Act are familiar to most Americansthey formthe backbone of environmental legislation in the United States. But how many people do youknow that can tell you what the acronym TSCA means? Today, over 30 years after the TSCA

was passed, the Act is widely regarded as the worst failure of the major environmental laws,having accomplished little to stem the flow of toxic chemicals into commerce and the

environment.1So what happened?

TSCAs TasksTo understand the failings of TSCA, it is first necessary to unders tand the sheer volume ofchemicals that fall within the Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) purview under the Act.When TSCA passed in 1976, the EPA was tasked with assessing the approximately 62,000

chemicals already existing in commerce.2Faced with so many chemicals, the EPA elected to

have them grandfathered in.3In other words, the agency decided not to take all of thesechemicals off of the market in order to test or assess their effects on health or theenvironment. Since 1976, the agencys job has only grown more complicated:

Today, there are over 84,000 chemicals in use;4700 new chemicals are introduced

each year;5

42 billion pounds of chemicals are produced or imported each day;6

The EPA anticipates a 3% growth in chemical production per year;7

The chemical industry is one of the largest in the USit is a $689 billion enterprise.8

Given these numbers, it isnt surprising that the EPA is falling behind. Most Americansassume that all chemicals in use today have been tested and regulated by public agencies,and therefore that they are safe to use. However, these assumptions are not necessarilytrue. The EPA lacks even basic toxicity information about a large number of chemicals in use

today.9

Constraints and HurdlesSince 1976, the EPA has mandated testing on only 200 chemicals out of the 84,000 that

make up the current inventory of chemicals under TSCA.10Sure, the task required of theEPA is large, but 200 still seems shockingly small. The primary reason why the EPA is fallingbehind is that TSCA is currently set up so that chemicals are not regulated before they areput on the market, rather that are regulated only after they have already been used and

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A single quart of motor oil, if

disposed of improperly, can

contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons

of fresh water.

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found to be harmful to health or the environment. The burden of proof falls entirely on the

EPA, public, and environmental advocacy groups.11Chemical companies have noresponsibility to demonstrate the safety of their products. In fact, according to EPA, 67% ofpre-manufacturing notices for new chemicals contain no dataon health or environmental

impacts!12

Unfortunately, while the EPA continues to lag behind with testing, more and more chemicalsare found to be harmful by third parties. The Center for Disease Control released the 3rdReport on Human Exposures to Environmental Chemicals in 2005. The report included a slewof studies indicating that human blood and urine samples contain over 100 chemicals, some

of which have been known to act as toxins at low levels.13The list of chemicals identified in

humans is likely to grow as investigators expand the set of tested chemicals. Alas, the morewe look, the more we find.

14

If the EPAs record for testing chemicals under TSCA seems unsatisfactory, consider itsabysmal record for actually banning chemicals. In the 35 years since TSCA was passed, theEPA has banned or partially restricted the use of only five chemicals. These chemicals

include PCBs, chlorofluorocarbons, dioxin, asbestos, and hexavalent chromium.15And

technically, the asbestos ruling was overturned and PCBs were actually banned byCongress, the EPA just enforces the ban.16

Why so few? Well, its not for nothing that many toxicologists cringe at the mention ofasbestos. The EPA spent ten years making a rule to ban asbestos. That ban was thrown outby a Court of Appeals on the grounds that the EPA had not met the TSCAs burden ofshowing that asbestos posed an unreasonable risk to human health, or that the EPA hadchosen the least burdensome method (for businesses) of addressing the problem. The

EPA has not taken action on any other chemical in the 18 years since that court decision.17

ConsequencesIt doesnt take a rocket scientist to make the connection between thousands of unregulatedchemicals and increases in a variety of health impacts. In California alone there are 208,000new cases of chronic disease per year attr ibutable to workplace chemical exposures, $1.4billion a year is spent on diseases attr ibutable to chemical exposures, and 7% of women of

reproductive age have blood mercury levels above safe levels.18,19Throughout the U.S.cancer rates have been increasing. Surely this isnt just a coincidence. In fact, certainchemicals are known to cause cancer:

Bladder cancer is linked to aromatic amines.20

Bladder and rectal cancer are linked to chlorination by-products.21

Bladder, laryngeal, lung, rectal, and skin cancers are linked to metal working fluids.22

Mesothelioma and lung cancer are linked to asbestos.23

Leukemia is linked to benzene.24

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Current Calls for reformIf there is any good news to report about one of the most inefficient environmental laws inU.S. history, its that reform might be nigh. Lisa P. Jackson, current Administrator at the EPA,is spearheading an initiative to reform TSCA to make it more similar to Europes REACH

laws.26The REACH program is implemented in phases: gradually more and moremanufacturers and importers are required to gather information on the properties of theirchemical substances, which will allow their safe handling. Over the next 11 years, informationfor all chemicals produced and used in the European Union will be entered into a central

database run by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).27Some of the key principles for reforming TSCA include:

Requiring that all chemicals are evaluated to determine their safety.Immediate action on the worst chemicals, specifically persistent and bioaccumulativetoxicants (PBTs), which persist in the environment and build up in the food chain and

our bodies.28

Requiring that manufacturers provide information on the health hazards associatedwith all of their chemicals, how they are used, and the ways that the public or workerscould be exposed.

Recent polling data shows that support for comprehensive reform of chemical regulation isvery strong, and that it reaches across partisan lines. In fact, one recent national pollindicates that the majority of Democrats, Republicans, and Tea Partiers support TSCA

reform.29The public understands the link between toxic chemicals and the rising levels ofchronic disease and believes this is a problem that the government can and should fix with

strong measures to protect the public.

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1 http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?article

URI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.08004042 http://www.epa.gov/oppt/existingchemicals/pubs/tscainventory/basic.html3http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1982489,00.html4 dreamofanation.org/img/Safer-Chemicals_Healthy-Families.pdf5http://thenationshealth.aphapublications.org/content/39/10/1.2.full6 http://www.psr-la.org/issues/environmental-health/chemical-policy-reform/7 http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?article

URI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.08004048 http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/68371/chemical-industry-stock-outlook-jan-20129http://www.epa.gov/hpv/pubs/general/hazchem.htm10 dreamofanation.org/img/Safer-Chemicals_Healthy-Families.pdf11 http://www.nrdc.org/health/toxics.asp12 http://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/6149_NotThatInnocent_Fullreport.pdf13 http://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/center-for-

excellence-in-environmental-health-tracking/Third_Report.pdf14 http://www.compliancesolutionscanada.com/images/ToxicIceberg.jpg15 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_Substances_Control_Act_of_197616 http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/hazard/tsd/pcbs/index.htm17 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_Substances_Control_Act_of_197618 http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/27/opinion/ed-chemistry2719 http://www.epa.gov/hg/exposure.htm20 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/949889821 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8932920

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22 http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/metalworking/23 http://www.pleuralmesothelioma.com/cancer/lung.php24 http://www.cleanwaterpartners.org/benzene/25 Chart constructed from data contained: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1240919/

26 http://www.gibsondunn.com/publications/Documents/Oberst-

Hang-Larris-ObamaEPATakeonTSCAReform.pdf27 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/reach/reach_intro.htm28 http://www.epa.gov/pbt/pubs/aboutpbt.htm29 http://www.nrdc.org/media/2012/120719.asp

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