|
Nearly 17,000 chemicals remain corporate secrets – even
the EPA doesn't know what they are
Ethan A. Huff
Natural
News
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
The 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requires that
manufacturers of products containing potentially toxic chemicals
disclose their ingredients to the federal government, however
a loophole in the requirement allows manufacturers to arbitrarily
withhold information that they deem sensitive to their business.
As a result, over 17,000 product chemicals remain secret not
only from the public but from government officials.
Each year, over 700 new chemicals are introduced by manufacturers,
many of which do not get disclosed either to the public or to
government agencies. About 95 percent of new chemical notices
submitted to the government request some kind of secrecy. Critics
allege that manufacturers are exploiting the original intent
of TSCA, abusing it to hide sensitive information about ingredients
that are likely toxic and may otherwise get banned.
For the first time in many years, Congress is addressing the
issue of disclosure abuse with promises of reforming the regulatory
provisions. Consumer and environmental groups, in conjunction
with many government officials, are demanding that all ingredient
information be made public with no exceptions.
Mike Walls, vice president of the American Chemistry Council,
argues otherwise, insisting that public disclosure would reveal
confidential information that could benefit competitors and
hurt business. He believes that even the names and addresses
of manufacturers should not have to be made public because competitors
may trace the information and somehow figure out secret recipes.
According to EPA records, more than half of the 65 "substantial
risk" reports submitted to agency last March involved secret
chemicals. Of these, 151 of them are produced in quantities
over one million tons a year and ten of them are used primarily
in children's products.
Last year, a Colorado chemical spill nearly cost a nurse her
life after she treated a man who had been exposed to the spill.
Following his recovery, nurse Cathy Behr fell seriously ill
herself, her lungs filling up with fluid and her liver on the
verge of failing. Concerned doctors traced the contamination
back to a product called ZetaFlow, produced by Weatherford International.
After requesting information Weatherford provided some material
but utilized ZetaFlow's confidential status to withhold the
secret ingredients.
To this day, Behr does not know exactly what triggered her
near death. She would like to see a list of all the chemicals
contained in ZetaFlow. She also believes that the ingredients
in all chemical products should be made public information to
ensure safety. She continues to suffer from respiratory problems
due to the unknown chemicals.
Steve Owens, assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of
Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, first arrived in
his position back in July and within a week ended confidentiality
protection for 530 chemicals. In each of these cases, manufacturers
had obtained secrecy for ingredients that were otherwise publicly
available on the manufacturers' websites and in trade journals.
Lynn Goldman, a former EPA official who now works as a pediatrician
and epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health, explained that the few EPA officials who are
in the know about secret chemicals do not have enough information
to properly assess risk by themselves and are legally bound
not to share the information with anyone else. Officials who
could otherwise help are unable to do so because they are not
privy to the secret ingredients. Thus the entire system is unable
to operate properly due to secrecy.
When specific chemicals are banned for safety reasons, manufacturers
often change them slightly and begin using them again as secret
ingredients. Heather Stapleton, a Duke University chemist, saw
a case like this while researching flame retardants. She labored
for months to identify a chemical found in dust samples taken
from homes in Boston but was unable to figure it out. While
at a conference, she came to realize from a diagram that the
mystery chemical was a slightly varied version of another that
had been banned for causing reproductive and other damage.
Richard Wiles, senior vice president of the Environmental Working
Group (EWG) believes there are thousands of chemicals currently
being used that are potentially toxic and people do not even
realize they are there. He questions how a regulatory agency
like the EPA can even do its job when a great many of the chemicals
it is supposed to be regulating are being withheld from the
agency and the public.
Federal officials are working towards establishing regulations
that would require manufacturers to provide evidence and reasoning
why a chemical must remain secret. Under their proposal, the
burden of proof would be on manufacturers to establish proof
that disclosure would harm business. The EPA would then have
90 days to appeal the claim and prove otherwise if it believed
necessary.
Others are not buying this idea, insisting that if public health
is to be regarded then no chemical should remain a secret.
"When the people find they can vote themselves
money, that will herald the end of the republic."
- Fall Of The Republic - Buy
the DVD here
|
INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
|
|
