Chemical quandary: chemicals are essential to our way of life, but who's ensuring their safe use?

• Author: Farquhar, Doug
• Position: ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Modern chemicals perform miraculous feats. They boost crop production and kill bad bugs in our drinking water. They make our computers operate, our cell phones work, our iPods play music. They clean our swimming pools and make our clothes brighter. They give us hard and soft plastics and keep our furniture from going up in flames.

But chemicals can carry risks. At certain levels, specific ones can affect our nervous systems and cause developmental disabilities and cancers. Others have been linked to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

So how do we enjoy the benefits of chemicals and ensure that we are safe?

Regulation Purview Problem

Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1976, giving the federal government the responsibility to protect us from harmful chemicals. The Consumer Product Safety Commission was assigned the job of regulating chemicals in consumer products and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) received all the rest. But frustration with the federal government's ability to do a thorough job has been growing. Illinois Senator Heather Steans (D) puts it simply: "The federal government doesn't regulate chemicals very well."

The toxic substances act hasn't been updated since it was originally passed--the only federal environmental statute that has not been overhauled. The chemical industry has changed since the '70s, but the regulatory system governing it hasn't. The industry invests heavily in testing and research to ensure its products are safe. But the federal government has not kept pace. And this, says Cal Dooley, president of the American Chemistry Council, "has eroded the public's confidence in the safety of chemicals and in the federal government's regulation in the production and use of them."

Former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson agrees the Toxic Substances Control Act is "an inadequate tool for providing the protection against chemical risks that the public rightfully expects. As more chemicals are found in our bodies and the environment, the public is understandably anxious and confused," she says.

It's not that Congress hasn't tried updating the act. It's been a goal for many for a long time. And again this year, both houses of Congress held hearings on chemical safety reform. But states are growing impatient. As we've seen in other policy areas, from the federal government's inaction comes state action. In 2014 alone, lawmakers in 43 states introduced 537 bills on chemical safety.

States Step In

Most recently, California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Vermont and Washington have developed comprehensive chemical policies to prioritize and study the chemicals of concern in a systematic way, filling in data where they are missing and restricting the uses of the most threatening chemicals. Another 15 states, includiing Indiana and Michigan, have statutes that regulate certain chemicals of concern individually.

This year, state lawmakers reviewed 43 bills on bisphenol A, 25 bills addressing chemicals in flame...