Industry and Republican allies aim to weaken public health protections, despite major health risks and 82% of Americans favoring the Toxic Substances Control Act
WASHINGTON, DC—Health advocates, veterans, health care providers, and community leaders gathered today to urge Congress to protect the Toxic Substances Control Act, the bedrock U.S. chemical safety law that safeguards Americans from toxic chemicals linked to cancer and fertility issues that are often found in household cleaning products, furniture, electronics and plastic products.
Earlier this year, Republicans in both the House and Senate introduced draft legislation that would gut key public health protections under the Toxic Substances Control Act. These proposed rollbacks come amid chemical industry influence at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s chemicals office and Americans’ growing concern over harmful chemicals in everyday products including toys, electronics, cookware coatings, and other household items.
Advocates traveled to Washington to take more than two dozen meetings with their representatives in Congress to share personal stories about the harmful impacts of toxic chemicals in our air, water, and everyday products and the importance of strong public health protections.
Quotes
“One decade ago, we in Congress passed the bipartisan Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act to protect our communities from dangerous chemicals, including asbestos, formaldehyde, and other cancer-causing substances,” said Congressman Paul Tonko. “We knew then that a strong national chemical safety program at EPA was the path to saving lives and improving the health of our environment and the American people. But now, that progress threatens to be rolled back. By hacking apart EPA’s budget and cutting safety reviews, we open ourselves up to the devastating harm caused by these deadly toxins. Congress must not claw back these protections. I’ll keep fighting for an EPA that prioritizes the American people, not corporate interests.”
“Americans deserve to know that the chemicals we use are safe,” said Congresswoman Nanette Barragán. “The Toxic Substances Control Act gives EPA the authority to review and regulate harmful chemicals to help prevent potential dangers like the TCE contamination seen in communities like South Gate, in my district. But Republicans’ efforts to weaken this law would make it harder to review, test, and restrict dangerous chemicals, putting public health at risk. We should be strengthening these protections—not taking them away—so every family can count on clean air, clean water, and a safer future.”
“Everyone has the right to breathe clean air, drink clean water and grow up in healthy neighborhoods,” said Dr. Pat Spearman, former Nevada State Senator and retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel. “If we lose the protections standing between us and health-harming pollution, more of our children will suffer needlessly. We owe it to our future generations to keep Toxic Substances Control Act protections in place to keep all of us safe from the most toxic chemicals.”
“The children in my hometown of Franklin with rare cancers from exposure to toxic TCE—I know them by name,” said Kari Rhinehart, community advocate and co-founder of If It Was Your Child. “There are real lives at stake. Congress can’t bring my daughter back, but they can make sure the next Franklin doesn’t happen by defending the Toxic Substances Control Act.”
“The East Palestine train derailment is not an isolated incident,” said Jess Conard, Rail Watch founder and executive director. “Toxic chemical exposures continue to happen in other communities, just like mine. The Toxic Substances Control Act can be used to prevent those exposures. Today, I’m asking Congress to protect the law that protects all of our families.”
“My son’s profound health struggles were a direct result of exposure to forever chemicals,” said Craig Minor, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and retired B-52 pilot. “During my time in the Air Force, my family—along with everyone else on base—drank, cooked, and showered in water contaminated by colorless, odorless, and tasteless PFAS from firefighter foam, and we’ve paid with our health. Congress must defend these essential protections to keep all of us safe from the worst toxic chemicals.”
“Toxic chemicals have upended the lives of far too many Americans, from East Palestine, Ohio, to Oscoda, Michigan,” said Sarah Vogel, senior vice president for Healthy Communities at Environmental Defense Action Fund. “These incidents are not isolated; they reflect failures to effectively manage toxic chemicals and come with real world consequences for families, workers, and entire communities—loss of health, of homes, of livelihoods, and the loss of loved ones. Today, our bedrock public health protections under the Toxic Substances Control Act and the integrity of the law itself are at risk. Weakening these essential safeguards would mean more cancers, more developmental harms for pregnant women and infants, and more lives cut needlessly short.”
“We are watching, in real-time, the rapid unraveling of decades of health protections fought and won by workers and communities across the nation,” said Katie Huffling, executive director of Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. “The dramatic rollbacks of this administration are accelerating risks to public health. Nurses are already witnessing firsthand the health impacts and harms from toxic chemicals like PFAS. The 2016 amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act enabled long overdue health protections, such as banning the use of trichloroethylene (TCE) and chrysotile asbestos. Yet, environmental exposures continue to have devastating effects on patients and communities, impacting overall quality of life across the nation. Giving industry greater license to put more chemicals on the market, without EPA rigorously evaluating their impacts on health and safety, will threaten public health. Nurses will continue to oppose any and all efforts to weaken environmental health policies designed to protect our communities.”
“At a time when people are demanding cleaner air, safer drinking water, and greater accountability from chemical companies, Congress should be demanding the administration enforce the protections in TSCA, not entertaining efforts to weaken them,” said Raul Garcia, vice president of policy and legislation, Earthjustice Action. “Our communities have faced health risks from exposure to toxic chemicals and the Trump administration refuses to protect them. Instead of standing up for our families, congressional Republicans want to cave to the President’s pro-polluter agenda, weakening existing health protections meant to keep our children safe. The American public will not stand for this.”
“In the military we serve and protect all Americans from dangers foreign and domestic,” said Alex Cornell du Houx, executive director EOPA Code Blue, former Combat Marine and former ME State Representative. “We proudly stand by that credo at Elected Officials To Protect America Code Blue. America must protect all our citizens from the dangers of toxic chemicals and keep the Toxic Substances Control Act strong.”
“The chemical industry has no right to use our children as their guinea pigs,” said Melody Reis, Moms Clean Air Force’s director of federal policy. “But that’s exactly what would happen if Congress guts TSCA for the sake of profits. I’m here today to demand that our leaders put people first—put children, whose bodies are more vulnerable to toxic exposures, first—and defend the legislative safeguards that protect our families from the dangers in everyday products.”
“Public health works best when we prevent harmful exposures before people get sick,” said Amanda Reddy, executive director of the National Center for Healthy Housing. “The Toxic Substances Control Act plays a critical role in ensuring that chemicals used in building materials and everyday products are evaluated for safety before they end up in our homes. Weakening these protections puts families at risk and could have lasting consequences for communities nationwide.”
“Nobody, wherever they live, wants more PFAS in the water they drink or chemicals in the air they breathe,” said Katie Hobbs, a senior adviser to the NRDC Action Fund. “Yet instead of protecting communities, the Trump administration is actively dismantling hard-fought, science-based health protections and Congressional Republicans have put forward proposals that prioritize the chemical industry’s wish list, leaving the public at greater risk of cancer, infertility, and neurological diseases like Parkinson’s. The American people deserve better. Congress should stand strong against industry influence and strengthen laws like TSCA that protect our health and our families.”
“Protecting people’s health from harmful chemicals is exactly what the Toxic Substances Control Act is supposed to do,” said Liz Hitchcock, director of federal policy at Toxic-Free Future. “We need more protections from toxic chemicals, not the rollbacks the chemical lobby is promoting. Families should be able to trust that the chemicals used in everyday products are not linked to cancer, reproductive harm, learning disabilities, and other serious health harms.”
“States have a key role to play in protecting people’s health from toxic chemicals,” said Gretchen Salter, policy director at Safer States. “For decades, states have been at the forefront of eliminating the most harmful chemicals and ensuring consumers have the right to know what is in the products they bring into their homes. These proposals in Congress threaten that crucial role. Congress should reject attempts to weaken chemical safety and ensure states can continue to act when dangerous chemicals threaten the health of their residents.”
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