Chemicals in Commerce Act Attempts to Reform Federal Toxic Substances Control Act

Congress is making yet another attempt at reforming the decades-old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), this time with the Chemicals in Commerce Act (CICA).  CICA promises to improve public confidence in the safety of chemicals and facilitate interstate commerce.  It is supported by industry organizations and companies such as the American Chemistry Council, Procter & Gamble, and BASF but criticized by advocates of safe chemicals, such as Give Toxics the Boot and Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families.

The main points of criticism are that the CICA still does not require the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conclude that new chemicals are safe before they are introduced into commerce.  As with TSCA, new chemicals will be assumed safe unless proven otherwise.  Furthermore, CICA includes a very similar standard to TSCA’s section 6, which governs EPA’s ability to regulate chemicals that have been determined to be unsafe.  Under TSCA, although the EPA had known for years that asbestos was unsafe, it took years for EPA to regulate asbestos.

However, chemical companies and industry advocates continue to insist that too much regulation stifles innovation, and that CICA is essential to America’s “manufacturing renaissance.”

The Chanler Group represents citizen enforcers who, acting in the public interest, commence actions against businesses offering products for sale in California that contain chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive harm without first providing the health hazard warning required by Proposition 65. Citizen enforcers bringing Proposition 65 actions in the public interest may obtain a Court Judgment imposing civil penalties, an injunction requiring reformulation of products, and/or provision of health hazard warnings. The Chanler Group has represented citizen enforcers of Proposition 65 for more than twenty years.