Congress report tells US to mimic REACH

By Anna McLauchlin

Date: 14/07/05

Environmental campaigners seeking to maintain the strength of the European Commission's proposals for regulating chemicals, REACH, have received a boost from Washington.

A report from the investigative arm of Congress on future chemical legislation in the US comes down in favour of tighter rules similar to those outlined in the REACH proposal.

REACH has been the subject of fierce lobbying from the EU chemicals industry and, less vociferously, from American chemicals companies.

The US study was carried out at the request of Democrat Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).

It suggests several options for improving the assessment and regulation of chemicals by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which like REACH would shift the burden of proof for the safety of chemicals onto the industry rather than the government.

As it stands, the EPA does not routinely assess the risk of a new chemical substance, but uses a model to compare it to a similar molecular structure. If it fears an unreasonable risk to humans or the environment, the agency can regulate.

But a more secure system of data provision would improve the system, the report concludes.

"The agency needs a multi-faceted strategy for improving the models, which includes obtaining additional information on chemical properties necessary to further develop and validate the models for regulatory purposes," the report says.

It recommends that the Congress give the EPA extra powers to enter into agreement with chemicals companies on conducting testing, to require chemicals manufacturers to develop test data and to share the information with both the states and foreign governments.

Additional changes could, the report says, include widening the criteria for regulation to include more substances and requiring companies to test their chemicals and submit the results to the EPA.

It also suggests, as with REACH, a systematic review of all existing chemicals based on data submitted by industry and using financial incentives to ensure that more toxic substances are substituted by safer alternatives.

GAO is an independent and non-partisan agency that studies government issues at the request of Congress members. Senator Lautenberg, who asked for the study, used it as the basis for his legislative initiative - the 'Child-Safe Chemicals Act'.

This proposal includes many of the GAO's recommendations."Most Americans believe their government is making sure that chemicals used in the market place are safe. Unfortunately, that simply isn't true," Lautenberg said on Wednesday (13 July). "Today, chemicals are being used to make baby bottles, food packaging and other products that have never been fully evaluated for their health effects on children - and some of these chemicals are turning up in our blood."

Mecki Naschke, chemicals policy officer at the European Environmental Bureau, said that she welcomed the report.

"This shows that the political will to move forward with chemicals policy is present on both sides of the Atlantic despite the anti-REACH campaign of the Bush administration," she said.

Jean-Claude Lahaut, general counsel for European Chemical Industry Association CEFIC, said that "the overall target should be for an international agency to work towards global harmonised regulatory systems". Such an agency would, he said, "probably be in the framework of the United Nations".

The Bush administration strongly opposed REACH when it was proposed, but observers say that transatlantic opposition has quietened down more recently.

A report from the investigative arm of the US Congress on future chemical legislation in the United States favoured tighter rules similar to those outlined in the European Commission's REACH proposal. Author says the study, carried out at the request of Democrat Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), could lend support to the European Commission's proposed legislation.