Background

The Problem: Increasingly, scientists believe that our nation’s growing rates of cancer, developmental disorders, asthma, premature birth, early puberty, childhood obesity and other health effects may be linked in part to our nation’s last century of intensive chemicals use, which has contaminated our waters, soil, the food we eat, the air we breathe, and—as confirmed by recent biomonitoring studies—our bodies.

In fact, the Centers for Disease Control report that the bodies of all Americans, regardless of age, race, and geography, are contaminated with hundreds of industrial chemicals. A project by the non-profit Environmental Working Group found a total of 287 industrial chemicals in the umbilical cord blood of ten newborn American babies. Toxic chemicals also contaminate our environment and wildlife. In Lake Michigan, for example, concentrations of the toxic chemical flame retardants PBDEs have been found to be among the highest of open water fish worldwide.

Our routine exposure to toxic and untested chemicals is a failure of our nation’s chemical safety policies. It’s perfectly legal for manufacturers to line food cans with toxic bisphenol A, which scientists estimate to be present in 95 percent of Americans at concentrations linked to cause numerous harms in laboratory animals. Similarly, although alternatives are available, most states still allow toxic phthalates in children’s toys, hazardous quantities of mercury in numerous products, and toxic PBDEs as flame retardants in household furniture and consumer electronics. Makers of products containing known toxics are not even required to list those contents on the label.

Moreover, these chemicals are a few of the known hazards, but three quarters of the 80,000 chemicals in commerce today have never been tested for safety, and scientists know even less about how the interactions of multiple chemicals may complicate their biological impacts.

In the United States, industrial chemicals are innocent until proven guilty—we wait for proof that chemicals are causing harm before regulating them. U.S. EPA reported in 1994 that about 16,000 chemicals in the U.S. were of some concern due to their structure and volume used in commerce. But under the 1976Toxics Substances Control Act (TSCA), the primary federal law regulating chemicals, EPA has restricted just five types of chemicals. TSCA does not require manufacturers to conduct any pre-market toxicity screening for the 2000 new chemicals they register for use each year. The law has never been updated to reflect advances in science, such recent finding that hormone-mimicking substances may cause harm even in tiny doses.

A sensible chemicals policy would:

• Naturally encourage the use of safer alternatives to hazardous chemicals;
• Shift the burden of proof so that chemical manufacturers demonstrate safety instead of the public having to prove harm.
• Prevent chemicals known or highly likely to be hazardous from being used in the first place. And when chemicals in use are identified to be hazardous, prompt the switch to available safer alternatives.