Senate Panel Weighs Toxic Chemicals Law

[Judi Lynn]

Senate Panel Weighs Toxic Chemicals Law
Manufacturers and the EPA think the 1976 rules are effective, but many others call for revisions.
By Marla Cone, Times Staff Writer
August 3, 2006


At the first Senate hearing in more than a decade to review the nation's toxic chemicals law, the Bush administration on Wednesday agreed with chemical industry representatives that the 30-year-old statute was strong enough to protect public health.

James B. Gulliford, an assistant administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency, told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works that the toxics law was "a very effective statute" that gave the agency "broad authorities" to ensure the public was safeguarded from industrial chemicals.
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Many political, legal, scientific and economic experts say the law needs to be overhauled because the U.S. trails the European Union and other developed countries in reviewing and restricting toxic substances.

"The EPA has slipped in its leadership in the international arena," said Dr. Lynn R. Goldman, a Johns Hopkins University scientist and pediatrician who headed the EPA's toxics program for the Clinton administration.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-toxics3aug03,1,1458223.story?coll=la-headlines-nation