Not just kids’ play any more: TSCA reform gets serious

By Environmental Defense on 04/15/2010 – 11:55 am PST -- Green

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

Today, at long last, legislation to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) hit the streets. A bill, the Safe Chemicals Act of 2010, was introduced by Senator Lautenberg in the U.S. Senate. And just to keep things interesting and all of us on our toes, Congressmen Rush and Waxman today released the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010 that is similar but not identical and isÂ in the form of a discussion draft, rather than a bill.

Itâ€™s been a long road to get here, but of course this is only the end of the beginning.

EDF and the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families coalition support the new legislative language and believe it includes most of the elements needed to move our outdated and broken chemical safety system into the 21^st century. We also will be seeking improvements in several areas as the bill moves forward.

For our coalition's initial perspective on the positive aspects as well as some of the shortcomings of the legislative proposals, see the news release we issued today. We will also soon be posting an analysis that aligns the billâ€™s and discussion draftâ€™s provisions with the planks of our platform, and Iâ€™ll provide an update with a link here.

Iâ€™ll certainly be posting frequently going forward on specific aspects of the legislation, but what can be said at the outset? Iâ€™ll start with the obvious question: How would life under this rewrite compare with life under current TSCA?

It simply must be said that, relative to the status quo, the legislation and discussion draft would represent a major sea change in the way we manage chemical safety in the U.S.Â

The table below highlights some of the big changes

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Rihana

Making industrial chemicals safer is something we can all get behind. If we want safer chemicals and a safer environment then we must use nonanimal methods of testing.

Currently, many toxicity tests are based on experiments in animals and use methods that were developed as long ago as the 1930â€™s; they and are slow, inaccurate, open to uncertainty and manipulation, and do not adequately protect human health. These tests take anywhere from months to years, and tens of thousands to millions of dollars to perform. More importantly, the current testing paradigm has a poor record in predicting effects in humans and an even poorer record in leading to actual regulation of dangerous chemicals.

The blueprint for development and implementation for nonanimal testing is the National Research Council report, “Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy in 2007.” This report calls for a shift away from the use of animals in toxicity testing. The report also concludes that human cell- and computer-based approaches are the best way to protect human health because they allow us to understand more quickly and accurately the varied effects that chemicals can have on different groups of people. They are also more affordable and more humane.

These methods are ideal for assessing the real world scenarios such as mixtures of chemicals, which have proven problematic using animal-based test methods. And, they’re the only way we can assess all chemicals on the market.