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Chemical burdens tightening: Here comes EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency and Congress are working on ways to tighten chemical safety regulations.

They have targeted phthalates and BPA, both prominent packaging chemicals.

It’s clear that these are not merely symbolic changes. You can expect things to happen quickly, with EPA promising its actions by December and work apparently already underway to further tighten the law’s requirements.

EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson gave a speech in late September in which she complained about the limitations of the Toxic Substances Control Act, the 1976 law intended to control exposures to chemicals. According to the text of the speech, she said that law has “been proven an inadequate tool for providing the protection against chemical risks that the public rightfully expects.”

She said makers of chemicals are not required to develop safety and exposure data. She also said the law gives EPA tools to require testing, but they are “cumbersome and time-consuming,” so there are gaps in safety data about chemicals in commerce, she added.

In a sometimes forceful address that emphasized her commitment to relying on science, she listed the principles that will guide her work to change the law and make more demands on chemical makers. In what industry has to count as a victory, she also explicitly noted that while children are exposed to more chemicals than before, “some chemicals may be risk-free at the levels we are seeing.” But she said increased public concern about chemicals has people turning to government for “assurance that chemicals have been assessed using the best available science, and that unacceptable risks haven’t been ignored.”

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