Dems introduce Child, Worker & Consumer Safe Chemicals Act

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To: National Desk
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usnw/20050713/pl_usnw/senators_propose_new_safeguards_for_children_s_health__gao_study_recommends_reforms203_xml

Contact: Tony Iallonardo of the National Environmental Trust, 202-887-8855


WASHINGTON, July 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Senators Frank Lautenberg (NJ), James Jeffords (VT), Hillary Clinton (NY), John Kerry (MA), and Barbara Boxer (CA) and Representative Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record) (CA) today introduced the "Child, Worker and Consumer Safe Chemicals Act." The bill would overturn the way chemicals are regulated in America and is similar to proposed reforms in the European Union. The proposal came as a new federal study revealed flaws in the current chemical safety program.


"Most Americans believe their government is making sure that chemicals used in the market place are safe. Unfortunately, that simply isn't true," said Senator Lautenberg. "Today, chemicals are being used to make baby bottles, food packaging and other products that have never been fully evaluated for their health effects on children-and some of these chemicals are turning up in our blood."


The last several years have seen a steady flow of research in peer-reviewed scientific journals documenting serious health affects from chemicals common in consumer products, including bisphenol-A (used in baby bottles) and phthalates (used in toys and cosmetics.) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC) has found these and other chemicals widespread in the blood and urine of Americans through a process known as bio-monitoring. The two trends have undermined the assumptions behind the current chemical safety program.


Today's GAO report found that the law governing the current program, the Toxic Substances Control Act has not provided EPA with the tools to protect public health. As a result, "EPA has rarely banned, limited the production, or restricted the use of existing chemicals. Only five chemical substances or groups of substances have been regulated... and the last final action EPA took to control existing chemicals was in 1990."


"Our existing chemical safety program is clearly broken and needs a radical overhaul," said Andy Igrejas, Environmental Health Program Director for NET. "We need to know that chemicals that we are all exposed to are not contributing to birth defects, learning disabilities, cancer and other chronic illness. The Senators' reform proposal would bring the law up to date with the science of children's health." The NET report Cabinet Confidential, released last year, found that for every pound of chemicals released into the environment forty pounds went into consumer products.