In a rare display of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, a group of key senators unveiled legislation Wednesday that would require chemical companies to provide more health and safety information about their products and give regulators more power to force harmful compounds off the market.
The compromise bill, supported by some health advocates and the chemical industry’s chief trade group, would overhaul a 1976 federal law that by all accounts has failed to protect Americans from harmful chemicals added to household products, including furniture, baby products, toys and electronics.
Sponsored by Democrat Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Republican David Vitter of Louisiana, the proposed Chemical Safety Improvement Act for the first time would require the Environmental Protection Agency to review the safety of more than 84,000 industrial chemicals, many of which already were on the market when Congress last acted on the issue nearly four decades ago.
The EPA also would get more authority to order health and safety tests for new chemicals, eliminating a system that has allowed companies to put scores of compounds on the market with little or no study about potential hazards to people and wildlife.
The bill would give the EPA authority to ban or restrict the use of chemicals if the agency finds that they pose unacceptable risks, a process that is now all but impossible. Under current law, the government couldn’t even ban asbestos, a well-documented carcinogen that has killed thousands of people who suffered devastating lung diseases.
“Every parent wants to know that the chemicals used in everyday products have been proven safe, but our current chemical laws fail to give parents that peace of mind,” said Lautenberg, who has been pushing for reform since 2005. “Our bipartisan bill would fix the flaws with current law and ensure that chemicals are screened for safety.”
Democrats revived chemical safety reform last summer after a Tribune investigation about toxic flame retardants, many of which remain on the market despite studies linking them to health problems. A Lautenberg-sponsored bill moved out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on a party-line vote but faltered amid opposition from the chemical industry.
After Vitter took over as the committee’s ranking Republican this year, he restarted negotiations with Lautenberg about a potential compromise. The two senators emerged with legislation co-sponsored by members of both parties, including Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois, and backed by major interest groups on both sides of the debate.
“Our bill strikes the right balance between strengthening consumer confidence in the safety of chemicals while also promoting innovation and the growth of an important sector of our economy,” Vitter said.
Some leading industry officials began supporting the idea of revamping the chemical safety law after a growing number of states, motivated by a lack of action at the federal level, enacted bans on specific compounds. Some, including California and Washington, established programs to study chemicals and draw attention to harmful substances.
Cal Dooley, president of the American Chemistry Council, vowed the influential trade group would push to move the compromise bill through the Senate and the House, where the Republican majority has voted several times since 2010 to strip the EPA of its powers.
“A sensible, strong and workable bipartisan solution … is more important than ever, not only for our industry but for the countless others that rely on chemical products,” Dooley said.
Health groups said they are still reviewing the legislation. Some fear the bill tilts too much in favor of industry.
Ken Cook, co-founder of the Environmental Working Group, called the bill a “stunning retreat” from the original Lautenberg legislation. But others were generally supportive.
“The Tribune series was a big wake-up call that there are costs to be paid for a broken system,” said Richard Denison, senior scientist at the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund. “While this bill isn’t perfect, it’s a policy and political breakthrough and opens a bipartisan path forward to fix a law that needs a major overhaul.”
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