For the first time in more than 40 years, the nation's primary chemical law is being updated with broad support from industry, environmental groups, states, and consumers. The bill has also garnered strong support from both House and Senate leadership, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the White House. The final bill reflects a multi-year effort by Congress to balance the interest of a wide variety of stakeholders to improve chemical safety and better regulate chemicals in commerce.
To view a copy of the final bill, click here.
ACA has supported the modernization of the TSCA statute, with the rationale that a strong federal chemicals management program is essential to avoid a patchwork of varied state chemicals management regulations. ACA believes a modernized, federal chemicals management program will not only improve the public's confidence in the safety of chemicals, but will also provide businesses with much-needed certainty and consistency in the marketplace.
ACA, as part of the American Alliance for Innovation (AAI) coalition, signed on to letters sent to both the House of Representatives and Senate urging final passage of TSCA legislation. The coalition letters, signed by 139 associations, stated that the bill, "creates a transparent, evidence-based, cohesive national program that will improve the regulation of chemicals used in commerce, provide more certainty and confidence in the regulatory framework, and have a significant impact on each of our industries, the products we make/or the services we provide, and the millions of workers we represent."
The bill creates a framework to reset the TSCA inventory, prioritizes chemical substances, makes it easier for EPA to obtain information on chemicals through testing, requires risk evaluations of high priority substances, creates a regulatory mechanism to address unreasonable risks identified, protects confidential business information (CBI), requires fees for certain TSCA activities, and contains a balanced approach to addressing federal preemption of state laws.
"The new TSCA legislation is a notable achievement and will provide much needed consistency and predictability in chemicals management regulations," said ACA President Andy Doyle. Read full at: http://www.paint.org/president-obama-signs-tsca-reform-bill/