S. HRG. 112–819 ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF U.S. CHEMICAL SAFETY LAWS HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON SUPERFUND, TOXICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH OF THE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION FEBRUARY 3, 2011 Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gpo.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 85–224PDF WASHINGTON : 2014 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION BARBARA BOXER, California, Chairman MAX BAUCUS, Montana JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware DAVID VITTER, Louisiana FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont MIKE CRAPO, Idaho SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee TOM UDALL, New Mexico MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, New York BETTINA POIRIER, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel RUTH VAN MARK, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON SUPERFUND, TOXICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, Chairman MAX BAUCUS, Montana MIKE CRAPO, Idaho THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska KIRSTEN GILLIBAND, New York JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas BARBARA BOXER, California, (ex officio) JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma, (ex officio) (II) CONTENTS Page FEBRUARY 3, 2011 OPENING STATEMENTS Lautenberg, Hon. Frank R., U.S. Senator from the State of New Jersey ......... 1 Vitter, Hon. David, U.S. Senator from the State of Louisiana ........................... 25 Inhofe, Hon. James M., U.S. Senator from the State of Oklahoma, prepared statement .............................................................................................................. 111 WITNESSES Owens, Steve, Assistant Administrator, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollu- tion Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency .......................................... 4 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 6 Responses to additional questions from: Senator Boxer ............................................................................................ 14 Senator Inhofe ........................................................................................... 18 Semrau, Kelly M., senior vice president, Global Corporate Affairs, Commu- nication and Sustainability, SC Johnson & Son, Inc. ....................................... 29 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 32 Responses to additional questions from Senator Inhofe ............................... 41 Goldberg, Steven J., vice president, Regulatory Law and Government Affairs, BASF Corporation ................................................................................................ 44 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 46 Responses to additional questions from Senator Inhofe ............................... 51 Beinecke, Frances, president, Natural Resources Defense Council .................... 55 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 57 Dooley, Cal, president and CEO, American Chemistry Council .......................... 67 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 70 Principles for Modernizing TSCA, American Chemistry Council ................. 74 Responses to additional questions from Senator Inhofe ............................... 77 Goldman, Lynn R., M.D., M.P.H., dean, professor, Environmental and Occu- pational Health, The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services ............................................................................................. 80 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 83 American Bar Association, Section of Environment, Energy, and Re- sources, Special Committee on TSCA Reform........................................... 91–104 ADDITIONAL MATERIAL Statements: National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA) .............................. 113 Society of Chemical Manufacturer’s and Affiliates ........................................ 116 Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine and People for the Eth- ical Treatment of Animals ........................................................................ 119–129 Society of Toxicology ......................................................................................... 130 Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA), Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and American Cleaning Institute® ............................. 132 Metropolitan Utilities District ......................................................................... 135 Letter, Episcopal Church USA; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; National Council of Churches USA; Presbyterian Church USA; Union for Reform Judaism; United Church of Christ and The United Methodist Church-General Board of Church and Society ............................................... 136–138 (III) ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF U.S. CHEMICAL SAFETY LAWS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2011 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON SUPERFUND, TOXICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH, Washington, DC. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 o’clock a.m. in room 406, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Frank R. Lautenberg, (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senators Lautenberg, Vitter, Whitehouse, Johanns, and Boozman. STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY Senator LAUTENBERG. Good morning. This is the first hearing of the year of the Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environ- mental Health. In this hearing, we will examine the effectiveness of our chemical safety laws, a critical issue that touches the lives of all Americans. In this Congress, our goal must be to build on our progress during the last progress. Progress. Notice I didn’t say achievement, I said progress. Over the course of four hearings, we uncovered dangerous and costly deficiencies in the Toxic Substances Control Act, known as TSCA. This subcommittee heard from the Centers for Disease Control, who told us that their scientists found 212 industrial chemicals, including 9 carcinogens, coursing through American bod- ies. We heard from everyday Americans who shared their heart- breaking stories, including two young mothers. One of those moth- ers, Molly Gray, testified about the fear and the uncertainty that she experienced when testing revealed that she had dozens of in- dustrial chemicals in her body while she was pregnant. Twice we heard from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who told us under current law that her Agency lacks the tools it needs to regulate hazardous chemicals. TSCA is so severely flawed that the non-partisan Government Accountability Office testified that it is a ‘‘high risk area of the law.’’ With the Federal Government unable to act and families growing more concerned about health risks, at least 18 States have adopted their own chemical safety laws. In a hearing last Feb- ruary, Dow and Dupont, two major chemical companies, testified in support of reform, in part because of the difficulties they face oper- (1) 2 ating under different rules in different States. Since our most re- cent hearing on this issue last October, the political landscape has shifted somewhat. But as we will hear today, the urgent need to fix our Country’s broken chemical safety system has not changed. The longer we wait to modernize TSCA, the longer businesses face uncertainty about the future, and the longer families will have concern about the risks, which products are safe and which are not. The highly successful global companies represented on our sec- ond panel today are as eager as we are to give people more con- fidence in the safety of their products. Make no mistake about it: chemicals play a crucial role in modern life. They are essential to everything from cleaning products that kill germs in our homes, schools and workplaces to renewable energy sources that reduce our dependence on dirty fuels. Most chemicals improve lives around the globe, and they do so with no toxic side effects. But some have been linked to serious health problems. Studies show that as much as 5 percent of child- hood cancers, 10 percent of neurobehavioral disorders, and 30 per- cent of childhood asthma cases are associated with hazardous chemicals. The National Institute of Environmental Health Science recently held a 3-day discussion on links between certain toxic chemicals and obesity and diabetes. That is why we need scientists to evalu- ate chemicals, determine which uses are safe and which are not. That is why we are here today. The companies represented have strong standards for evaluating the safety of their products. SC Johnson & Son was founded 125 years ago, and its continued success depends on keeping toxic chemicals out of the company’s products. Same principle applies