The Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA) issued a statement recently to a key U.S. Senate environmental panel, expressing its opposition to the Safe Chemicals Act introduced earlier this year by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). The bill is an effort to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) enacted in 1976 and expands the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ability to require recordkeeping or impose restrictions on chemicals.

SOCMA’s statement was submitted to a jointly-held legislative hearing on the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) before the full Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, chaired by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and the Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics, and Environmental Health, chaired by Lautenberg.

“There is broad stakeholder agreement that TSCA needs to be modernized, but the Safe Chemicals Act is not workable," according to President Lawrence D. Sloan. "It fails to adequately consider its impact on innovation or balance chemical safety with continued manufacturing in the U.S.” 

Sloan warned that the costs and delays associatedd with increased data submission would have an impact on U.S. jobs. "Right now, there has been insufficient discussion about this important issue.”

SOCMA criticized the committee for failing to invite small and medium-sized chemical manufacturers to testify before it. 

"The highly innovative sector of specialty batch manufacturers could be particularly impacted if production of certain chemicals is shifted to developing countries. Furthermore, this legislation does not ensure that Americans will be any safer."

The group urged Congress to "avoid dismantling aspects of TSCA that have worked well."

Click here for a summary of the Safe Chemicals Act.  

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