77 



The common wisdom was completely wrong! Nearly every major provision that 

 was expected to succeed has failed to live up to expectations. The new chemical com- 

 promise, presumed fatally flawed, has succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expecta- 

 tions; while the provisions designed to report, test, and control hazardous chemicals 

 have achieved too little to mention. Overall, the law has proven to be either a fail- 

 vu"e or — worse — irrelevant. 



I have many comments and ideas concerning the specific provisions of TSCA. I 

 will reserve them for another time, for minor changes in the existing law cannot 

 adequately address the environmental problems of toxic chemicals in commerce. 

 This statute needs a complete overhaul. This testimony provides a brief overview 

 of issues that I think Congress should consider in making such an overhaul. I would 

 be happy to go into further detail on any of these points. 



WHY HAS TSCA FALLEN SHORT? 



I have known the political leadership, all the career senior executives, and many 

 other professionals active in this program over all its years. With one brief exception 

 a decade ago, I am convinced that the Agency has been committed at all levels to 

 carrjdng out TSCA's purposes. Those involved in the program for many years may 

 be discouraged, but not for lack of will has TSCA failed. 



This program has been blessed with the presence of extraordinarily talented staff 

 over the ye£U"s. The TSCA program has been the source of an unusually large pro- 

 portion of the senior executives across EPA programs and even other Federal De- 

 partments. The program has been blessed with the presence of several world-re- 

 nowned scientists — among them, a winner of the American Chemical Societ^s Envi- 

 ronmental Award and a winner of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award. Not for 

 lack of talent has TSCA failed. 



This program in its early days was blessed with generous personnel allocations 

 and dollar resources. In later years, only after the progreim started falling short, 

 have its resources become quite constrained. Not for lack of resources has TSCA 

 failed. (On the other hand, cutbacks now seriously threaten its one effective ele- 

 ment: new chemical review.) 



Finally, not for lack of problems to address has TSCA failed, nor for lack of op- 

 tions. The problems of toxics in commerce are great and seldom is there a lack of 

 reasonable alternatives to reduce human and environmental risks. 



The main reason that TSCA has failed is that it addresses an unreal world-view 

 of the environmental concerns with toxic chemicals in commerce. TSCA is designed 

 to tackle a few, relatively static unreasonable risks from chemicals in commerce that 

 EPA can readily identify by use of the testing and reporting provisions of the law. 

 TSCA then assumes that EPA, using risk assessments, economic impact analyses, 

 and engineering judgments, can decide what industry should do to avoid such un- 

 reasonable risks, promulgate a rule, and proceed to the next simple problem. 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS WITH TOXIC CHEMICALS IN COMMERCE 



The phrase "toxics in commerce" in this testimony refers to the intentional uses 

 of toxic chemicals at every stage in commerce from material extraction (mining) and 

 other generation (refining, manufacture), their processing, their distribution, their 

 use and re-use, and their disposal. This is in contrast to toxic chemicals in waste 

 resulting from industrial inefficiencies or toxic chemical contaminants in our envi- 

 ronment. 



Conscious decisions about chemical use underlie major sources of toxics in our en- 

 vironment. For example, toxic chemicals in commerce account for most: 



• nonpoint source pollution, 



• indoor air pollution, 



• food contamination, 



• workplace health risks, and 



• stratospheric ozone-depleter burden. 



Chemical use decisions outweigh inefficiencies in industrial processes (toxics in 

 waste) as the source of environmental contamination of hazardous waste sites, the 



