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U.S. Chemical Program: Purpose, Challenges, and Evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Odelia Funke
Odelia Funke*
Affiliation:
Environmental Protection Agency, USA
*
Correspondence should be addressed to 5308 Reno Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA (e-mail: [email protected]).
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Abstract

This article explores long-term issues and problems that have seriously undermined the U.S. Chemical Testing Program established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Toxic Substances Control Act. This program is meant to gather information needed to protect human health and the environment from damaging exposure to toxic chemicals. Despite seemingly broad and impressive authority under the statute, there are a number of inherent difficulties, as well as substantial political constraints, that impede comprehensive oversight of chemicals in U.S. commerce. The article discusses several approaches that EPA has adopted to overcome statutory and political limitations and increase chemical testing information. The most recent and promising of these efforts has involved international negotiations to harmonize testing approaches with OECD nations and to cooperate on an agenda that will better share the testing burden on an international level.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , September 2001 , pp. 175 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

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