States Write The Playbook On Chemicals, Now Congress Should Join The Team

— filed under: Safer Chemicals

States have been doing more than their share of the heavy lifting on toxic chemicals, and now it’s time for the feds to step up—that was the message from a key Washington state leader to Congress this morning.

Debate on our nation’s outdated chemical law is heating up, and today Ted Sturdevant, director of the Washington State Department of Ecology, weighed in with a unique perspective as a leader in a state that’s at the forefront of addressing toxic chemicals. Sturdevant testified in front of the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce in anticipation of a bill expected to be introduced later this month to update the Toxics Substances Control Act (TSCA).

Sturdevant highlighted Washington State’s groundbreaking program to phase out the worst of the worst toxic chemicals. Known as PBTs, these chemicals include mercury, lead, and toxic flame retardants, and are considered a triple threat because they stay around for a long time, build up in our bodies and environment, and are toxic in very small amounts.

Washington state is nationally recognized as a leader in protecting public health from toxics chemicals largely because of its decade-old PBT program. Washington’s program targets a list of persistent toxic chemicals and has led to state bans on mercury, lead, and the first ever ban on the toxic flame retardant deca-BDE.

Persistent toxic chemicals pose one of the biggest threats to Puget Sound and its resident orcas.

Sturdevant told committee members why any federal reform must include action on PBT chemicals:

The EPA finally banned PCBs in 1979, after more than 50 years of widespread use. Since then, despite the ban and millions of private and taxpayer dollars spent on PCB cleanup in Washington State, significant amounts of PCBs continue to flow into Puget Sound today….when we put persistent toxics out into the world, they persist. And if they turn out to be a problem, then the problem becomes enormous, and largely unsolvable. Once out, we cannot ever truly put the PBT genie back in the bottle.

Sturdevant not only trumpeted Washington’s successes, but also outlined the problems well-meaning states face when trying to put in place programs to regulate the over 80,000 chemicals on the market today:

Without a system that starts with precaution, allows targeted bans and effectively moves us from less safe to more safe products, we at the state level are forced to fight for and fund solutions on a patchwork basis, as more and more of us recognize that federal chemical policy does not provide the tools we need to carry out our missions to protect our citizens and environments. State by state, chemical by chemical approaches are not efficient or effective ways to address PBTs, which do not respect jurisdictional boundaries.

We wholeheartedly agree!

This isn’t the first time states like Washington have asked Congress for help regulating chemicals. Frustration at the state level is growing as well-meaning states that want to protect their residents from chemicals like lead, bisphenol A, and phthalates, are stymied by an outdated chemical laws.

Late last year, twelve states, including Washington, banded together to put forward the States’ Principles On Reform Of the Toxic Substances Control Act.

You can read or listen to Director Sturdevant’s full testimony here.

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States Write The Playbook On Chemicals, Now Congress Should Join The Team

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