The U.S. Senate yesterday passed the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety
for the 21st Century Act (Chemical Safety Act).
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), in an
announcement, indicated that the legislation creates a
"predictable and transparent federal system to regulate the
safety of chemicals based on the latest science, providing greater
regulatory certainty to the chemical manufacturing industry and
striking a balance between state and federal roles in chemical
safety management."
The 39-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is the last
of the major environmental laws passed in the 1960s and 70s that
has not been modernized. While thousands of chemicals are currently
in existence, as many as 1,500 new chemicals come on the market
each year. Over TSCA's history, the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has
only restricted five chemicals as posing an "unreasonable
risk" and has only prevented four new chemicals from going to
market – out of more than 23,000
