BREAKING NEWS: Senate to Hold TSCA Chemical Control Hearing on Thursday

"Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics, and Environmental Health, will convene a hearing to examine the current science on public exposures to toxic chemicals."

So opens the announcement today on the Senate EPW web page. This is the same Senator Frank Lautenberg who is widely expected to reintroduce an updated version of his Kid Safe Chemical Act. The fact that he is holding a hearing is a strong sign that his reintroduction is following the path I noted in earlier posts here and here.

This particular hearing focuses on exposure aspects and is entitled "Current Science on Public Exposures to Toxic Chemicals." Lautenberg chairs the subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health, which is part of the Committee on Environment and Public Works (chaired by Senator Boxer), which held a TSCA hearing in December.

Following opening remarks, two panels are scheduled to be participate, as follows:

Panel 1

Stephen Owens (Assistant Administrator, Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances Environmental Protection Agency)

Henry Falk M.D., M.P.H. (Acting Director, National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

John Stephenson (Director, Natural Resources and Environment, U.S. Government Accountability Office)

Linda Birnbaum Ph.D., D.A.B.T., A.T.S. (Director, National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences)

Panel 2

Molly Jones Gray (Participant in a Biomonitoring Study)

Ken Cook (President, Environmental Working Group)

Charles McKay MD FACMT, FACEP, ABIM (Division of Toxicology, Department of Emergency Medicine, Hartford Hospital)

Tracey J. Woodruff PhD, MPH (Associate Professor and Director, Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco)

I will follow the hearing and report on the testimony. Biomonitoring seems to really be getting a lot of "exposure" (pun intended) in these hearings, so it would surprising to see any TSCA reform bill that lacks some type of biomonitoring requirement...or at least the use of biomonitoring trigger the identification of a chemical of concern.