A bill called the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010 was introduced yesterday in the House. The bill would amend 1976 s Toxic Substances Control Act by enforcing a safety and risk assessment of all chemicals to which Americans are exposed.
ACSH s Jeff Stier says this development gives greater urgency to the Sound Science Caucus that ACSH hopes to encourage like-minded members of Congress to launch with your support. Congress is prepared to put together very complex legislation regulating the future of the chemical industry, he says. If the law does not take into account proper science, such as risk assessment, and if members of Congress and their staff do not appreciate the limited application of tools such as biomonitoring, we could end up with a law that is overly cautious, impedes progress, and does nothing to improve our health or safety.
ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross adds, Indeed, this law, if enacted, would be the first step towards importing the European precautionary principle, which they have in the form of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances (REACH) regulation. This would be a great triumph for the chemophobic activist movement, and will hurt American s consumers all of us by restricting our access to safe and useful products, and increasing the costs of those remaining.