Toxic Chemicals Bill Seriously Flawed; Its Shortcomings Must Be Addressed

WASHINGTON (March 10, 2015) – Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Tom Udall (D-NM) plan to introduce a bill today to update the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of  1976.

Daniel Rosenberg, senior attorney in the Health Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, made these comments on the proposal:

“This important chemical safety law needs to be updated, and the bill has improved notably since the original version introduced two years ago.  But the proposal still contains rollbacks and loopholes that make it worse than current law.  For example, a lax Environmental Protection Agency could use the bill to give a green light to deregulate hundreds of controversial chemicals with minimal review.  The bill also would block state action even when EPA has done nothing to protect the public.  The bill’s failings would be easy to remedy, and we continue to work to get this bill to a point where it would be acceptable.”