Congress must pass a strong chemical safety bill

Among the top issues on Congress’s to do list in the new session is fixing the last of the 1970’s environmental laws to get an update. Just before leaving town in December, the Senate passed legislation to reform America’s badly broken chemical safety system. That followed earlier House action and sets up a chance to enact the first landmark environmental bill in two decades. But the overwhelming support in both chambers belies the difficult path behind us and the treacherous road ahead. Whether our children and grandchildren are truly protected from toxic chemicals will depend on the strength of the final legislation sent to the president.

This issue is one that should concern every American family. For decades, our system of regulating the chemicals in everything from clothes to cleaning supplies to children’s toys has done little to protect us. While tens of thousands of chemicals have flooded the market, and scientists have linked some of them to diseases like cancer and Parkinson’s, EPA has been powerless to limit or restrict even the most dangerous ones.

The culprit is America’s main chemical safety law-- nearly 40 years old and broken from the start. In fact, just one day after Gerald Ford signed the law, The New York Times cited my organization, Environmental Defense Fund, arguing for a stronger law. Yet, reform efforts remained stuck until two years ago when public health champion, then-Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and industry ally Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) joined together on a bipartisan compromise. That bill suffered a great blow when Lautenberg died less than two weeks later. Luckily, Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) then took the helm and for the past two years, has led arduous negotiations between an unlikely set of conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats.

All of that courage, leadership and hard work has paid off in a strong, workable compromise bill that nearly every senator supports. We now have the best chance in a generation to fix this problem. In fact, it may be our only chance for a very long time. That means we need to get it done and get it done right.

The bill that’s finally sent to the president must establish a strong overall system of protection from dangerous chemicals. The legislation must give EPA the tools and resources it needs to protect the public’s health. This includes a primary focus on chemicals that EPA determines are of concern to health and the environment, not those the chemical industry wants reviewed; timely completion of safety reviews for chemicals in use as well as the 700 new chemicals that enter the market every year; a standard for judging their safety that is purely health-based; ready means to generate and share with states and the public information on chemical safety; and robust authority to restrict chemicals that present a risk to the public or our environment.

Failure to establish a strong federal program means we would fall back to the same passive patchwork system that has left us exposed to toxic chemicals for the last four decades. Worse, we will have wasted a once-in-a-generation chance to secure strong health protections for all Americans.

The bottom line is that Congress needs to send a bill to the president that actually ensures the safety of the thousands of chemicals that we encounter every day. If Congress is successful, it will have enacted the most important environmental law in decades.

Americans have a right to know that the products they buy in the supermarket and hardware store are safe. Congress owes them no less.

This post first ran on The Hill.