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from: www.saferchemicals.org
Agreement is growing across the political spectrum and among scientists, health professionals, and concerned parents that federal law does not adequately protect Americans from toxic chemicals. The primary law responsible for ensuring chemicals are safe—the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)—was passed in 1976 and has never been updated. The law is so weak that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has only been able to require testing on less than two percent of the more than 80,000 chemicals that have been on the market at some point since TSCA was adopted.[1]
Much has changed since TSCA became law decades ago. Scientists have developed a more refined understanding of how some chemicals can cause and contribute to serious illness, including cancer, reproductive and developmental disorders, neurologic diseases, and asthma.
By reforming TSCA, we can reduce our exposure to toxic chemicals, improve our nation’s health, and lower the cost of health care. This report documents some of the scientific findings and economic analysis in support of meaningful TSCA reform.
More than 30 years of environmental health studies have led to a growing consensus that chemicals are playing a role in the incidence and prevalence of many diseases and disorders in the United States, including:
Chronic disease: many trends are on the rise
- Leukemia, brain cancer, and other childhood cancers, which have increased by more than 20% since 1975.[2]
- Breast cancer, the incidence of which went up by 40% between 1973 and 1998.[3] While breast cancer rates have declined in recent years in post-menopausal white women, rates of breast cancer in pre-menopausal white women and post-menopausal black women remain unchanged.[4][5] A woman’s lifetime risk of breast cancer is now one in eight, up from one in ten in 1973.[6]
- Asthma, which approximately doubled in prevalence between 1980 and 1995 and has continued to rise. In 2009, nearly 1 in 12 Americans had asthma.[7][8]
- Difficulty in conceiving and maintaining a pregnancy affected 40% more women in 2002 than in 1982. From 1982 to 1995, the incidence of reported difficulty almost doubled in younger women, ages 18–25.[9][10]
- The birth defect resulting in undescended testicles (cryptorchidism) increased sharply between 1970 and 1993, with uncertain trends since then.[11]
- Learning and developmental disabilities, including autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, affect nearly one in six U.S. children, as of 2008.[12] Between 1997 and 2008, the prevalence of autism increased nearly 300% nationally.[13]
In general, these and other common diseases or disorders are the result of many factors, but many chemicals, by themselves or in combination with other chemical and non-chemical factors, can be harmful to multiple systems in the body, increasing the risk of adverse health outcomes.
The health and economic benefits of reforming chemical policy
Estimates
of the proportion of the disease burden that can be attributed to
chemicals vary. A recent World Health Organization review conservatively
estimates that the global disease burden related to chemicals is more
than 8%.[15]
Here in the United States, researchers estimate that 5% of childhood
cancer and 30% of childhood asthma are attributable to chemical
exposures.[16][17]
Whatever the actual contribution of chemicals to the overall disease burden or specific diseases, effective chemical policy reform will incorporate the last 30+ years of science to reduce those exposures that contribute to chronic disease and provide incentives to move to safer alternatives. Any decline in the incidence of chronic diseases also can be expected to lower health care costs.
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