Reauthorization of the Toxic Substances Control ACT

Excerpt from Reauthorization of the Toxic Substances Control Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Toxic Substances, Research and Development of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, United States Senate, One Hundred Third Congress, Second Session, May 17 and July 13, 1994 The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m. in room 406, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Harry Reid [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding. Present: Senator Reid. Opening Statement Of Hon. Harry Reid, U.S. Senator From The State Of Nevada Senator Reid. The hearing will come to order. We're here today to discuss the Toxic Substances Control Act, the quiet environmental statute that doesn't generally receive the attention that other environmental issues do. In some respects, its silence is odd because TSCA gives EPA significant authority and because many of the original intentions behind TSCA are somewhat radical and seem oddly contemporary. As many people now recognize, TSCA was really our first pollution prevention statute. This statute's fundamental concept is preventive, going back to the source - that is, to the manufacturers and processors of chemicals - to prevent and control downstream hazards. This is particularly true to the new chemical program which required the EPA to consider the potential health and environmental effects of chemicals before they're even manufactured. This preventive approach makes sense from the standpoint of protecting our health and getting the most protection that we can for the dollars we spend. It's an approach we've been returning to as we've crafted bills reauthorizing other environmental statutes like the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act, which acknowledged the importance of protecting water sources before they become polluted. Another sensible principle in TSCA is the idea that manufacturers have certain responsibilities for their products. Section 2 of TSCA recognizes the responsibility of manufacturers and processors to develop data on the health and environmental effects of the chemicals they produce. TSCA sets up the expectation that the industry should be conducting tests, not the government. We'll talk some today about how this responsibility should go beyond testing chemical use and the management of risks. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.