Making products safer

Friday, Aug. 7, 2009 | 2:06 a.m.

A federal law enacted in 1976 was designed to give the Environmental Protection Agency sufficient clout to protect the public from exposure to dangerous industrial chemicals in products, but environmental groups and chemical manufacturers agree that the effect has been minimal.

In separate statements released Tuesday, representatives of those natural adversaries urged Congress to give the Toxic Substances Control Act more teeth, with an emphasis on providing greater protection for children.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat who has been one of the law’s fiercest critics in Congress, has said he plans to reintroduce legislation to do just that.

The bill he introduced last year died in the Senate. Instead, Congress passed legislation that banned hazardous lead and certain chemical compounds from children’s toys. That was a good first step.

But Lautenberg’s bill was far broader because it would have required chemical companies to demonstrate the safety of all their products, given the EPA more authority to use new science and testing methods to measure the health effects of those products, and established a public database on the Internet with information on chemical uses and potential hazards.

It’s no surprise that the Environmental Defense Fund and like-minded groups would back such legislation. As aptly stated by Richard Denison, a senior scientist with the organization, the toxic substances act is so weak that it has “forced states, businesses, workers and consumers to try to act on their own to address what should be a national priority.”

The American Chemistry Council, which represents manufacturers, has arrived at the same conclusion. As explained by David Kepler, Dow Chemical’s executive vice president of business services, the industry supports greater involvement by the EPA in the testing and evaluation of chemicals in products because “it will give the public confidence in what we do.”

Lautenberg should press forward with his legislation after the Senate’s August recess, and we hope it will win swift approval in Congress.