Maryland parents should be able to shop safely without concern that everyday products may contain toxic chemicals that threaten their children's health. A key step toward achieving this goal is updating our nearly 40 year old national chemical regulation.
Chances are, an updated chemical safety bill will be on the president's desk before the end of this Congress. The House passed its version with near unanimous support, and a Senate bill may be up for a vote soon.
On the one hand, this is incredible news. We have been pushing for this long overdue update for decades. On the other hand, the final proposal may be too weak to support.
The upcoming Senate vote is a critical opportunity to strengthen the proposal. Our biggest concern is that the bill being considered would undermine states' ability to protect public health from toxic chemical exposure while falling far short of doing so itself. Unless the proposal is strengthened, Maryland would effectively be blocked from regulating many toxic chemicals and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would only review the safety of 25 to 50 chemicals over the next five years.
As background, the primary law responsible for ensuring chemicals are safe — the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) — was passed in 1976 and is long overdue for an update. The law is so weak that the EPA has only been able to require testing on less than 2 percent of the more than 80,000 chemicals that have been on the market at some point since TSCA was adopted. Of those that have been studied, approximately 1,400 chemicals with known or probable links to cancer, asthma, developmental disorders, reproductive impacts and other health problems are still in use today.
Our weak and outdated chemical law has led to widespread exposure to hazardous chemicals in our homes, schools and places of work and through the products we use every day. The more we know about the cost of toxic chemicals to our health, the more critical it is to improve regulation.
In the absence of federal protection, states have stepped up as best they can. I'm proud that Maryland has restricted six different toxic chemicals in recent years including heavy metals like cadmium and lead, toxic flame retardants like decaBDE and TCEP, and phthalates like BPA. This current proposal would seriously limit our ability to restrict dangerous chemicals that threaten children's health.
Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh testified to this point during Senate hearings. He was quoted by The Sun as saying that the draft, "Essentially puts the states out of the business of protecting their people from poison."
Don't get me wrong. We need national reform. Desperately so. States do not have the necessary resources to properly test and regulate all the chemicals on the market. It may be a tough needle to thread, but we can provide greater protection of health and safety while also providing regulated industry with a rational and predictable system. And until we have a strong national policy, states must retain the ability to protect their citizens.
As Congress debates the best way forward, I hope members will consult our leading experts in medicine and science. The chemical industry lobbyists will continue to push for lax timelines, loopholes for imported products, poor enforcement, limited state regulation and continued use of chemicals we know to cause enormous harm. Thankfully, Maryland's Sen. Ben Cardin has played a key role in negotiating against bad reform and protecting states' rights to protect their citizens.
We're so close to real reform. We should not tie the hands of Maryland leaders to protect their citizens. And, if we ever want to ensure that the thousands of chemicals on the market are safe, we need to take on well over 25 to 50 chemicals in the next five years.
Please encourage your member of Congress to stand up to the chemical industry and protect public health. I look forward to a day when we don't have to worry that everyday products contain chemicals that can harm our health.
Emily Scarr is director of Maryland PIRG; her email is emily@marylandpirg.org; Twitter: @EmilyScarr.