Hearing on Environmental Protection: Toxic Chemical Policies

Today the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency’s toxic chemical policies. Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) blamed the Bush Administration for changes in EPA’s policies that allow political interference in the scientific risk assessment process. She argued that allowing political entities to interfere in a process that demands only scientific expertise inhibits the acquisition of the most accurate information needed to develop policies that will protect American citizens and children from harmful toxins and chemicals in air and drinking water.

Another concern was the secrecy involved in EPA policy making. The Government Accountability Office report said that the EPA had failed to deliver timely, accurate reports that could be held accountable. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) presented a flow chart that compared the EPA’s risk assessment process prior to 2004 to its most recent model, which displays many more steps and which he says obscures the transparency of the process.

Contrasts were made between the United States’ Toxic Substances Control Act, which makes the government responsible for proving chemical safety, and its European counterpart, REACH, that puts the burden of proving chemical safety on the chemical industry itself, which Chairman Boxer said in her written statement is “where it should be.”