Legislation to Weaken Toxic Chemical Laws One of the Worst Ideas of All Time

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republicans put forward a legislative proposal to rewrite the nation’s most important law protecting the public from toxic chemicals. Weakening the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is high on the wish list of Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee and the chemical lobby.

The following is a statement by Katie Hobbs, director of federal affairs for NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):

“Making America more contaminated by toxic chemicals linked to cancer, infertility, and neurological diseases like Parkinson’s is one of the worst ideas of all time. Yet, this is what some House Republicans have embraced, cynically doing the bidding of the chemical industry, without regard for how this will adversely impact the health of the people they represent. This draft bill should be dead on arrival.”

Background

The chemical lobby wants to overhaul TSCA for three main reasons:

1. To remove health-based reviews and limits on new chemicals—limits Congress overwhelmingly adopted only nine years ago to increase public health protection and to stop the flow of cancer-causing chemicals like PFAS into our environment and our bodies.

2. To weaken protections from dangerous chemicals already on the market, including asbestos and the cancer-causing and acutely toxic solvent methylene chloride. The law was strengthened only nine years ago to better protect the public from these and other dangerous chemicals.

3. To take away the public’s right to know about the chemicals that are in everyday products like carpets, furniture, toys, clothing, and cleaning products—and to prevent states from passing laws to provide information to the public. Again, Congress protected the rights of states to enact these laws only nine years ago.

Weakening TSCA is a key part of the chemical lobby’s pro-cancer agenda. Some of their other priorities to make people sicker include:

• Removing federal controls on air pollution from plastic incinerators and hazardous waste generated by those same incinerators, as well as other kinds of plastic disposal.

• Allowing major sources of toxic air pollution—including facilities near schools—to remove controls and monitoring equipment, leaving the public unprotected and in the dark about what they are breathing.

• Overturning a recent phase out of the cancer-causing and toxic solvent TCE—which has poisoned many communities and homes throughout the country, including infamously the Camp LeJeune Marine base in North Carolina. 

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).