WASHINGTON, DC (May 23, 2013)—Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle reached a groundbreaking agreement this week to update the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act and ensure that all chemicals in consumer products are screened for safety. U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and David Vitter (R-LA) introduced the bill on May 22 in order to protect the public health and the environment from potentially toxic or harmful chemicals. A bi-partisan group of senators co-sponsored the legislation, which is called Chemical Safety Improvement Act of 2013.
“All Americans want to know that the products they use are safe,” said Lynn R. Goldman, MD, MS, MPH, Dean of the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS). “This bi-partisan agreement is a major step forward to the enactment of reforms that would mean chemicals in the marketplace are safe.”
Under the current law companies do not have to provide any safety data before they introduce new chemicals. That means that tens of thousands of poorly tested chemicals are on the market today, including some that are potentially carcinogenic and others that might harm developing children, says Goldman, who is a pediatrician, an epidemiologist and a former regulator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The new bill would not just fill in that gap but it would also give the EPA a better ability to ban toxic chemicals from the marketplace, she says.
To interview Dr. Goldman please contact Kathy Fackelmann at 202-994-8354 or [email protected].
About the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services: Established in July 1997, the School of Public Health and Health Services brought together three longstanding university programs in the schools of medicine, business, and education and is now the only school of public health in the nation’s capital. Today, more than 1,100 students from nearly every U.S. state and more than 40 nations pursue undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral-level degrees in public health. http://sphhs.gwu.edu/
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