31 



graded, materials. I would not want to be constrained from that op- 

 tion. 



Mr. Guerrero. My Chairman, my observations on that are that 

 I think those type of norms might in fact be helpful, but they're not 

 necessarily the solution. I think they would be useful because one 

 of the problems we suffer from now under TSCA is the absence of 

 criteria in which to make these kinds of judgments. Norms will 

 help us articulate better how we're going to focus our resources and 

 what we're going to focus them on to reduce risk. While I think 

 norms could prove to be helpful, we also need some very specific 

 fixes to different provisions of the law. There's a growing consensus 

 that TSCA's provisions are not very effectively used by the EPA to 

 carry out its requirements under the law, and I would like to make 

 one general observation off of this discussion. 



We got on to this notion of how you would deal with existing 

 chemicals differently than you would new chemicals, and I think 

 it's really important as we proceed to look at how to fix TSCA and 

 reauthorizing it that we do make a clear distinction between the 

 new chemical program and the existing chemical program because 

 there are different problems associated with each and the kinds of 

 solutions that we ought to be looking at will be different, to some 

 extent. And I think it's important to keep that dichotomy in mind 

 as we proceed forward ana as the subcommittee proceeds forward 

 to develop reauthorization legislation. 



Senator Reid. I would like for the three of you to put yourself 

 in my position. As you can tell from the attendance here, tnis isn't 

 a subject that people are dashing all over the Senate to learn more 

 about, and I personally have a lot of other things that I work on. 

 As you know, we've got all kinds of Nevada related issues, we've 

 got health care that we're working on, the crime bill, immigration, 

 welfare reform, and here I'm tr3dng to get from three experts some 

 information as to how we're going to control all of these chemicals 

 that are out there. And I need some guidance as to what we're 

 going to do with these existing chemicals, how we're going to get 

 a handle on it. 



We would all agree that we need to do that, right, the three of 

 you would agree to that? How are we go to do it? 



You've got. Dr. Muir, an idea. Dr. Silbergeld, you have general- 

 ized ideas. I mean, I need some guidance really because you can 

 imagine the problems I'm going to have trying to convince 99 other 

 Senators that this is great for the chemical industry. 



Yes? 



Dr. Silbergeld. Well, I think one very simple and certainly 

 proven suggestion to you would be to bring home the SIDS pro- 

 gram from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Devel- 

 opment. This is a program in which the U.S. industry, and govern- 

 ment, and the environmental community has participated. It 

 works, it is feasible, it is cost-effective, and while it doesn't address 

 all the concerns and problems that all of us have here, it is an im- 

 measurable improvement over the current situation. 



Senator Reid. Tell me what you think that the SIDS program 

 would do then or this problem I have outlined? 



Dr. Silbergeld. Well, this may be somewhat unorthodox, but I'll 

 ask Charles Auer from the EPA if he would also comment on this 



