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June 12, 2008
Europe's REACH chemical safety law takes effect
We've been longtime supporters (our comments to European Commission, 2006)of the European precautionary approach to toxic hazards. In the Washington Post story Chemical Law Has Global Impact: E.U.'s New Rules Forcing Changes By U.S. Firms, reporter Lyndsey Layton explains the implementation of Europe's new REACH statute on chemical safety: Adamantly opposed by the U.S. chemical industry and the Bush administration, the E.U. laws will be phased in over the next decade. It is difficult to know exactly how the changes will affect products sold in the United States. But American manufacturers are already searching for safer alternatives to chemicals used to make thousands of consumer goods, from bike helmets to shower curtains. (emphasis added) Unlike REACH, which requires products to be safe before use, the archaic U.S. Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), gives the EPA has the authority to ban chemicals, but it must take on such a great burden for action that EPA has not banned many chemicals since PCBs were banned in 1976. Layton points out: The EPA has banned only five chemicals since 1976. The hurdles are so high for the agency that it has been unable to ban asbestos, which is widely acknowledged as a likely carcinogen and is barred in more than 30 countries. Instead, the EPA relies on industry to voluntarily cease production of suspect chemicals. The story also notes that both Europe, and numerous U.S. states, typically lead the laggard U.S. federal government in providing greater protection against a variety of unfair business practices and product hazards. Of course, the three parts of the U.S. federal system -- including the courts, the Congress and most administrations, including the current one -- are all in the thrall of business lobbyists not only seeking weak federal rules, but preemption of stronger state law authority as well. More from the Post:
The European Union's tough stance on chemical regulation is the latest area in which the Europeans are reshaping business practices with demands that American companies either comply or lose access to a market of 27 countries and nearly 500 million people. From its crackdown on antitrust practices in the computer industry to its rigorous protection of consumer privacy, the European Union has adopted a regulatory philosophy that emphasizes the consumer. Its approach to managing chemical risks, which started with a trickle of individual bans and has swelled into a wave, is part of a European focus on caution when it comes to health and the environment. The question of the day is this: Will the U.S. Congress retain the strong anti-toxic-phthalates provision passed by the Senate in its version of CPSC reform in the final law? Or, will it either delete it or gut it, for example, by reversing its language that makes federal anti-toxic phthalates law a floor, but allowing stronger state action?
Posted by Ed Mierzwinski at June 12, 2008 11:17 AM
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