Reforming laws on toxic chemicals could save billions

Posted on Jan 21, 2010

 The Health Case for Reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act, a recent report by the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Campaign, shows that the U.S. has the opportunity to prevent rising rates of chronic disease and reduce health care costs by overhauling federal chemical policy. Evidence is strong and growing that chemical exposures contribute significantly to the rise in many chronic diseases, according to this new report synthesizing peer-reviewed science. 

As the U.S. debates the costs of health care and its reform and New York State continues to be in a fiscal crisis, “The Health Case” documents the enormous health care costs of treating cancer, learning and developmental disabilities, asthma and other diseases and conditions linked to chemical exposure, according to recent studies. By updating toxic chemical laws, the report found that Congress would reduce exposure to chemicals contributing to chronic diseases. 

Conservative estimates show that if reductions in toxics led to even a 0.1 percent incidence of these diseases the US would save $5 billion annually in health care costs, and New York would save nearly $300 million annually. These dollar figures are based on expected health care costs projected for 2020, and assumes full implementation of the new legislation by that year.  The Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition has estimated health care cost savings on a state-by-state basis, using census figures projected for 2020.  The report summarizes a number of peer-reviewed studies that estimate the disease burden attributable to chemical exposure. These estimates vary widely, from five percent of childhood cancer to 30 percent of childhood asthma. 

"As Chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee,it is a priority to not only protect the environment but also work to protect people's health from the adverse affects of environmental chemicals," stated NYS Senate Environmental Committe Chair Antoine M. Thompson. "Increasing rates of diseases such as childhood cancer, infertility and autism are unacceptable and changes need to be made."

"As science advances, and we learn more about the effect chemicals have on our environment and ourselves, we need to make sure that this new knowledge is used to protect human health and the environment," said Assemblyman Bob Sweeney, Chair of the NYS Assembly Committee on Environmental Conservation.

The primary federal law governing chemical safety is the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which has never been significantly amended since its adoption in 1976.  EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has identified comprehensive reform of the toxics law as a key Obama Administration priority, stating that the law fails to provide EPA with the authority it needs to ensure chemicals are safe. Of the 80,000 chemicals used in the U.S., EPA has been able to require safety testing on only 200. And 60,000 chemicals - including bisphenol A - were grandfathered in for use without any testing for health safety. New legislation to bring the toxics law into the 21st century will be introduced by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) in early 2010.

"While the research community advances in their ability to identify hazardous chemicals and health outcomes, meaningful advances in public policy are overdue,” said Karen Joy Miller, Executive Director of Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition, Inc. and Prevention Is The Cure. “Strong legislation will provide the foundation for change."   

"Failure of TSCA has direct implications for the health of America's children. Infants and children are uniquely vulnerable to toxic industrial chemicals. Research from CDC documents show that several hundred industrial chemicals are in all of us. Some of these chemicals are known to cause asthma, cancer, learning disabilities and birth defects,” said Philip J. Landrigan, MD, Pediatrician and Director of the Children's Environmental Health Center at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “But for too many of the chemicals that are in us, no toxicity testing has ever been done. For too many of the industrial chemicals that are in us we have no idea of their potential toxicity to our children.  This is very unwise and terribly short-sighted. Failure of TSCA is cause for great concern not only for the health of our children, but also for the future of our nation." 

“What's most disturbing about the costs associated with these diseases is the extent to which they are entirely preventable,” said Kathy Curtis, Policy Director for Clean New York. “We musn't accept them as some sort of unavoidable necessity.  It is time for our government to stem, and in fact reverse, the tide.”

During the last 30 years, tens of thousands of peer reviewed studies have built a large body of evidence demonstrating that chemical exposure can cause and contribute to some of our nation’s most serious health problems — from childhood cancer to infertility. 

“This important report makes it painfully clear that we need an effective law to protect our families and friends from dangerous chemicals now routinely used in common household products. Current laws simply do not work, and have done virtually nothing to assure everyday Americans that our everyday products are safe,” said Stephen Boese, Executive Director of the Learning Disabilities Association of New York State. “The increasing incidence of neurological disorders, cancers and asthma point to chemical exposures that few understand and none can avoid.  This is why chemical policy reform is so important, and this is why it is urgent for Congress and the President to enact effective legislation to assure the safety of products in the marketplace.”

Leukemia and other childhood cancers have increased by more than 20 percent since 1975. A woman’s lifetime risk of breast cancer is now one in eight, up from one in ten in 1973. Infertility affected 40 percent more women in 2002 than in 1982. The once-rare birth defect of undescended testicles in baby boys increased 200 percent between 1970 and 1993. Since the early 1990s, reported cases of autism spectrum disorder have increased tenfold.

“NARAL Pro-Choice New York joins our colleagues in calling for reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act.  Comprehensive chemical reform is a critical step in helping to support healthy communities and ensuring that when a women decides to start a family she will have every opportunity to experience healthy outcomes,” said Angela Hooton, Vice President for Programs, NARAL Pro-Choice New York.

“People are already avoiding consumer products that contain toxic chemicals where they can, but because we lack fundamental information about the majority of chemicals, that isn't enough,” said Gina Solomon, MD, Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Smarter regulation of these chemicals will reduce the incidence of disease and associated health care costs.”

The Safer Chemicals, Healthy Family report concludes, “in simplest terms, real [TSCA] reform will lead to more healthy babies, fewer women with breast cancer, a return toward normal fertility patterns, and lower numbers of people with Alzheimer’s disease. This is the promise of TSCA reform.”