Chemical Safety
Since it was enacted in 1976, the Toxic Substances Control Act has been a target of heated debate as to whether it adequately protects public health. This debate has intensified as scientific advances have increased our knowledge of the impact chemicals have on the human body and the environment.
Due to a lack of sufficient federal oversight, many state legislatures and local governments are now limiting the use of certain chemicals or creating broader regulations that apply only within their borders. This piecemeal approach to consumer protection laws is not only inadequate in protecting overall public health, but also creates confusion from region to region.
Even amidst an extremely busy legislative agenda, policymakers and regulators are paying attention to the chemical safety issues our Coalition has been raising. Recently, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson unveiled the Obama Administration’s Principals for reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act ( click here for more information). The Coalition for Chemical Safety is encouraged by this development. Not only because it shows the long overdue reform process is underway, but also because the Administration appears to agree with the Coalition – that comprehensive, national reform is urgently needed. There is clear recognition that relying on existing federal law and numerous and sometimes conflicting state laws just won’t work.
We believe the Administration's Principles are in keeping with the Coalition's goal of protecting public safety while encouraging chemical innovation and creating good paying jobs. Nonetheless, we must remain diligent throughout the legislative process and we encourage our members to continue communicating the Coalition's position to our Members of Congress.
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Safety
Chemical Safety Laws Protect Public Health
Our nation’s chemical safety laws affect the safety of you, your family, and community. Reforms can make them stronger and more effective.
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Innovation
Chemical Safety Law Reform Must Encourage Innovation
Our nation’s chemical safety laws have an enormous impact on scientific innovation. Reforms should preserve American innovation.
Computers and Electronics
Chemistry is critical to purifying silicon so that it can be used in microelectronics. A process of chemical reactions purifies silicon to the highly purified polysilicon needed for the manufacturing process.
Chemistry is essential to the fabrication of microprocessors and printing circuit boards, which requires light sensitive chemicals, polymers, and industrial chemicals for printing, etching, cleaning, and other steps in the manufacturing process.
Silicons and fibers are now being used at the nanotechnological level, creating transistors that are so miniscule that, as The Economist recently pointed out, more than four million could fit on the period at the end of this sentence.
The products of chemistry are necessary for manufacture of DVDs, HD-disks, and other optical discs that have become essential to the movie, television, video game, and information technology industries.
Fiber optic technology could not exist without the products of chemistry. Each fiber comprises three parts: the core through which light travels; a reflective material around the core that ensures continuous light transmission as the strand turns and bends; and a hard plastic coating to prevent damage and block moisture.
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Jobs
The Chemical Industry Supports American Jobs
The chemical industry supports tens of thousands of American jobs. Reform of our chemical safety laws should protect these jobs—and help create others.
Industries and Jobs
The chemical industry transforms natural raw materials obtained from the earth, sea, and air into products we use every day, including appliances, furniture, home furnishings, light vehicles, and sporting goods, to name a few.
Our food, safe water supply, clothing, shelter, health care, computer technology, and transportation all depend on chemistry.
Chemistry is the enabling industry of the manufacturing sector. More than 96 percent of all manufactured goods are directly touched by chemistry, either as a material in processing or through other value-added means.
The business of chemistry is one of the most knowledge-intensive industries in the manufacturing sector. Nearly 40% of all employees in the U.S. chemical industry have at least a university degree, which is double the average in manufacturing
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Environmental Impact
Reform of our Chemical Safety Laws Should Protect the Planet
Chemical safety laws affect the environmental health of the entire planet. Reforms must ensure the continued protection of our environment.
Biotechnology
The chemical industry is one of the primary drivers behind the industrial biotechnology industry. Industrial biotechnology—also known as ‘white biotechnology’—is the use of living cells and/or their enzymes to create ‘bioproducts’ from renewable resources, as an alternative to traditional petrochemical manufacturing. The process is rapidly being adapted to produce a range of products from alternative fuels and plastics to medicines and could help achieve substantial benefits for industry, the environment, and consumers.
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Bill Tracking
Please click here to read the full version of the bill currently before Congress.
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Renewable Energy
Advanced polymers are critical to reducing the weight of wind turbine blades and making their design more aerodynamic, thereby increasing the amount of energy that can be generated from a given amount of wind.
Specialty chemicals are also required for lubricating the gears in wind turbines, which face special challenges, such as corrosion from salt water on offshore turbines, extensive force on gears, weathering, and remote locations, which makes regular servicing more difficult.
Chemistry is the backbone of the solar energy industry. Specialty silicons and other materials are required in the manufacture of solar cells. Chemistry also produces the conductive tapes, protective resins, light-concentrating plastic panels, high-capacity transmission lines, and moisture-protective films upon which solar cell arrays depend.
The products of chemistry are enabling the expansion of solar energy generation from solar panel fields to applications such as household roofing shingles that use sunlight to generate electricity.
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