Folks:
Georjean has correctly identified the current ACS statement on
endocrine disrupting chemicals. With regard to specific
legislation, ACS would only take a position if the proposed bill was
directly covered by our statement or through a new statement specific to
the bill. Usually we wait to see the actually language before
considering this kind of decision, but even by its broad description,
this legislation would go well beyond what our position covers.
To take a position on this bill, the ACS Board would need to receive
a proposed statement that covers the matter from CEI, the Committee on
Chemical Safety, DivCHAS, or some other representatives of the
membership. If anyone is interested in developing a position on
this bill and proposing it to the Board as a statement of the broader
ACS membership, CEI would be happy to work with
you.
For now, ACS will not take a position on this
proposal.
Thanks for the heads up Georjean,
Ray Garant
Staff Liaison, Committee on Environmental
Improvement
Assistant Director for Public Policy, ACS Office of Public
Affairs
From:
georjean**At_Symbol_Here**gmail.com [mailto:georjean**At_Symbol_Here**gmail.com] On Behalf Of
Georjean Adams
Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2011 12:57
PM
To: DCHAS-L Discussion List
Cc: Ray
Garant
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals
Exposure Elimination Act of 2011
ACS has a position statement on endocrine
disruptors: htt
p://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=
PP_SUPERARTICLE&node_id=2226&use_sec=false&sec_url_var=
region1&__uuid=4d680e34-14f1-4a22-83cb-64f7716d6e26
I
very much doubt ACS would go further than this or would be ready to
support such a bill, other than to support further research into a still
controversial area. Ray Garant, Assistant Director of Public
Policy and CEI Staff Liaison, may also want to comment.
Further,
my bias is strongly toward the public notice and comment rulemaking
process and I would lobby against any kind of automatic ban authority
being delegated to a small group of government employees. Bans
(and even black-listing) entail major costs and benefits considerations
that require input from all affected stakeholders.
Disclosures:
I'm on the ACS Committee for Environmental Improvement, teach a course
on environmental regulations at the Univ of Minnesota and am a business
consultant, specializing in TSCA and product
stewardship.
Georjean Adams
EHS Strategies,
Inc.
651-204-3371
On Fri,
Jul 8, 2011 at 9:59 PM, ILPI <info**At_Symbol_Here**ilpi.com>
wrote:
This is a
fascinating paradigm shift, although I would be genuinely surprised if
such legislation could make it out of committee, let alone through
the House. Does the ACS have a position on this or is it too hot
an issue for them to touch given the ACC's strong
opposition?
See http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/07/08/chemical.bans/inde
x.html?hpt=hp_t2 and the current version of the as-yet-unsubmitted
bill at http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/images/07/08/endocrin
e.disrupting.chemicals.exposure.elimination.act.of.2011-jun.24.pdf
Bill would let federal health researchers ban
certain chemicals
(CNN) -- A new bill could alter the landscape of
chemical regulation in the United States by empowering researchers to
take swift action against the most potentially harmful chemicals in use
today.
The bill, to be introduced later this month, would
give the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences, and a panel of experts selected by the director, the power to
ban up to 10 chemicals from commerce each year by categorizing them as
being of high concern.
Those chemicals would become unlawful to use 24 months
after receiving that designation.
Among the chemicals that could be subject to a ban is
bisphenol A, or BPA, a hormone-disrupting substance widely used in
plastics that has been the target of controversy in recent
months.
The bill is to be introduced by Rep. Jim Moran,
D-Virginia, and Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, later this
month.
The fate of the legislation, though, is far from
certain. It will have to make its way through committee in both the
Republican-controlled House and the Senate, where Democrats have a small
majority.
CNN received an advance copy of the bill*, called the
Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals Exposure Elimination Act of 2011, which
has a self-executing statute under which the listing of high concern by
the NIEHS automatically would outlaw the chemical or class of chemicals,
and would require each regulatory agency to take action to prohibit the
chemical.
*Editor's note: This is an advanced draft of the bill.
It could change before being introduced.
If the bill were to become law, the NIEHS, a part of
the National Institutes of Health, could have chemicals outlawed much
sooner than otherwise possible...
(much more in the rest of the article; see link
above).
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