Obama signs law granting EPA power to regulate toxic substances News
Obama signs law granting EPA power to regulate toxic substances

US President Barack Obama [official website] signed [press release] legislation [HR 2576 text, PDF] Wednesday granting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website] power to regulate thousands of everyday substances. The law makes major changes to the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) [EPA backgrounder], which has not been modified since it was passed in 1976. The law provides the EPA a new risk-based safety standard to evaluate chemicals. The new standard places significant weight on vulnerable individuals such as children and pregnant women. Some environmental groups say the new law does not grant the EPA enough power, while others argue it gives federal regulators excessive power over the states.

The Obama administration has been calling [JURIST report] for Congress to enact legislation to tighten chemical and toxin regulations since 2009. The administration argued that reform was needed because many of the chemicals in the TSCA were no longer used or produced, while other toxins were increasingly showing up in people’s bodies that in 1976 were not considered dangerous. Led by the Obama administration’s Essential Principles for Reform of Chemicals Management Legislation, US Senators Barbara Boxer and Frank Lautenberg as well as Representatives Henry Waxman and Bobby Rush crafted the legislation.