Hazardous Waste Control
Topic Outline
Policy
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976 – This is the major public health law governing chemical products. It forbade blanket premarket toxicity testing and review of more than 22,000 chemical products that have subsequently entered the marketplace. It also grandfathered as “safe” 62,000 existing substances, including many that are now known to cause cancer and other illnesses.
Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act. This amendment to the TSCA took effect in 2017 and requires that the EPA make an affirmative finding that new products do not pose unreasonable risks to the public.
Analysis
Cranor, Carl. Toxic Torts: Science, law, and the Possibility of Justice. (Cambridge University Press, 2006, This book examines the relationship between tort law and the review of scientific evidence, as it relates to personal injury cases, and suggests some solutions to increase the possibility of justice. It examines why most victims of toxic exposures in the U.S. never receive the compensation they deserve.
Cranor, Carl. Toxic Torts: Science, law, and the Possibility of Justice. (Cambridge University Press, 2016, 2nd edition. This edition is updated to reflect 10 years of developments in tort law and science, and expanded coverage of the scientific studies used to understand harms from chemical products.
Cranor, Carl. Tragic Failures: How and Why We are Harmed by Toxic Chemicals. Oxford University Press, 2017. This book explains the origins of federal regulation of toxic substances, and why only food, drugs, and pesticides are tested before going to market.
Organizations
- Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- Envirofacts Warehouse Chemical References
- Office of Lead Hazard Control (HUD: formerly the Office of Lead Based Paint Abatement and Poisoning Prevention)
Site includes regulations, outreach efforts, standards and funding availability. - Federal Programs are Not Effectively Reaching at-Risk Children
- Environmental Health Center (National Safety Council)
- Superfund (Political Economy Research Center)
- Greenpeace
- National Lead Information Center (National Safety Council)
Experts
Carl Cranor, a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside, is a longtime advocate of reforming policies for regulating exposure to toxic substances, and has served on several California science advisory panels. He is known globally for his research on the regulation of toxic substances, the ethics of risk, and the philosophy of law and science.