For those who have been following this page you will have noticed that I have used the Senate version of the TSCA Reform bill as my reference point. The Senate bill was introduced by Senator Lautenberg, the sponsor of the previous two Kid Safe Chemical Acts (that never even made it to committee discussion). But there is also a House version of the bill. It is largely the same on the key features, but not completely the same. One point of departure is that the House bill, which Representatives Waxman and Rush issued as a "discussion draft" under the moniker Toxic Substances Safety Act of 2010, has a SEC. 33. EXPEDITED ACTION FOR CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES WITH DOCUMENTED RISKS.
The section states that "In the case of a chemical substance identified in subsection (b) for which risk to health and the environment have been well documented yet sufficient risk management actions have not been taken, expedited action under this title is warranted."
And guess what? Unlike the Senate bill, the House bill names names! Well, chemical names. They pick much of the low hanging fruit, that is, chemicals that have already been identified some place or another to be substances of very high concern. The idea is to deal with these quickly, like while EPA is waiting for companies to notify the chemicals for the new inventory. So the chemicals listed are:
(1) Anthracene, pure
(2) Asbestos
(3) Bisphenol A
(4) Cadmium and cadmium compounds
(5) Chloroalkanes, C10–13 (short-chain chlorinated paraffins)
(6) Decabromodiphenyl ether and congeners in the commercial DecaBDE mixture
(7) p-Dichlorobenzene
(8) Formaldehyde
(9) n-Hexane
(10) Hexabromocyclododecane, including all major diastereomers
(11) Hexachlorobutadiene
(12) Hexavalent chromium
(13) Lead and lead compounds
(14) Methylene chloride
(15) Mercury and mercury compounds
(16) Musk xylene
(17) The following perfluorinated compounds:
(A) Fluorinated telomers
(B) Perfluoroalkyl sulfonates
(C) Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, its salts, and perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride
(D) Perfluorooctanoic acid and related salts
(E) Polyfluoroalkyl phosphoric acid diesters
(18) Phenanthrene
(19) The following phthalates:
(A) Benzylbutyl phthalate
(B) Dibutyl phthalate
(C) Diethylhexyl phthalate
(D) Di-isodecyl phthalate
(E) Di-n-hexyl phthalate
(20) Polybrominated biphenyls
(21) Polychlorinated terphenyls
(22) Tetrabromobisphenol A
(23) 1,2,3–Trichlorobenzene
(24) 1,2,4–Trichlorobenzene
(25) 1,2,3,4–Tetrachlorobenzene
(26) 1,2,4,5–Tetrachlorobenzene
(27) Trichloroethylene
(28) Tris (1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate
(29) Tris (2-chloroethyl) phosphate
(30) Tris (2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate
(31) Vinyl chloride
I'm sure many of the chemicals will sound familiar to everyone. I'll talk more about what will happen to these chemicals if the bill passes.
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