People Centered Environmentalism

In recent months, federal legislation has been proposed to overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA).  On March 9th a Senate hearing was held to get business’s perspective on TSCA reform.  We, Construction Specialties, had a story that Senator Lautenberg’s committee wanted to hear.  When their committee person interviewed me and got a sense of what we were doing, he said that the committee would want to hear about it.  I was honored to testify before the Senate of behalf of C/S.  You can view the hearing here.  I think that we bring a voice that is both pro business and pro TSCA reform.  If it’s not about people and people don’t benefit - then why do it?  And there cannot be a benefit to people if TSCA reform shuts down industry.  It won’t do that.  It will give industry the ability to innovate.  Without the proposed TSCA Reform, we’ll lose industry to Europe and/or Asia, but with effective TSCA Reform it’s a stronger America that will be exporting our expertise in safer products.

The current TSCA requires the EPA to prove a chemical is dangerous.  Chemical manufacturers and formulators are not required to prove that a new chemical is safe.  Some say there are 20,000 chemicals in industry, some say there are 80,000 - 100,000.  The EPA has not even been able to ban asbestos - they are powerless to do so.  The reform certainly adds complexity, but the hoped for legislation will require the first set of bad actor chemicals be reviewed for safety and each year there would be a minimum number of chemicals that would be reviewed.  New chemicals and substitutes would have to be shown to be safe and if there’s doubt, they won’t be used, but if there’s no doubt as to the safety, the chemical would be given a fast pass.  Ultimately, if TSCA is not reformed, we in the U.S. will lose our competitive edge.  Europe is already working on chemical policy reform.  What will happen is that European manufacturers will have safer materials than what U.S. manufacturers have.  We have consumers that want environmentally friendly products.  Imported products would have better features than ours and this will ultimately hurt American business.  We need to go further - we need safer choices and better alternatives or we will lose competitive edge against imported products; American industry will be vulnerable.

There are challenges in this for business, but we still support TSCA reform.  The benefits for human health are great and we believe that the work is worth it in the form of an ROI in terms of dollars as well as human health and a stronger America.

If you’d like more information on TSCA reform, visit the Safe Chemicals Healthy Families and Business NGO Working Group websites.  Please leave a comment and let me know your view of the proposed TSCA reform legislation.  Or ask me a question about it - I’d love to help you understand this important legislation.