EWG Supports Proposed Toxics Legislation

For Immediate Release: 
Monday, July 11, 2005

(WASHINGTON, July 13) - The Environmental Working Group (EWG) strongly supports legislation introduced today by U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Jim Jeffords (I-VT), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Jon Corzine (D-NJ), Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and John Kerry (D-MA) that would overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The legislation, entitled the "Kids-Safe Chemicals Act of 2005," contains much-needed fundamental reforms of TSCA, the nation's notoriously weak chemical safety law. TSCA has not been reformed in nearly 30 years.

The proposed legislation would transform TSCA into a true public health and environmental statute by requiring that chemicals be affirmatively proven safe for infants and children, putting the burden of proof on industry, and granting EPA unequivocal authority to request studies necessary to prove a chemical's safety with clear deadlines to act against chemical manufacturers who fail to comply.

"The Lautenberg-Jeffords bill contains long overdue protections for the public from the literally thousands of chemicals to which we are exposed, for which there is almost no meaningful safety information," said Richard Wiles, senior vice president of EWG. "This bill correctly puts the burden on the chemical industry to prove that their products are safe for infants and children."


