09 May 2006 - Despite
official resistance to the new EU chemicals law
(REACH), pressure is mounting in the United Sates
for a reform of its own chemicals policy.
The new paper “Cloudy Skies, Chance of Sun: A
Forecast for U.S. Reform of Chemicals policy,”
prepared by The Center for International Environmental
Law (CIEL) in Washington with the support of WWF,
describes how state and local governments, businesses
and civil society are already starting to change
the way the U.S. deals with hazardous chemicals.
“While the U.S. government has
been fiercely lobbying EU-decision makers against
REACH, many Americans are working to reform their
antiquated system for regulating dangerous chemicals,”
says Daryl Ditz, author of the paper and senior
policy advisor on chemicals for CIEL.
As the U.S. Toxic Substances
Control Act turns 30, evidence shows that it has
been spectacularly ineffective in weeding out
hazardous chemicals and encouraging the development
of safer alternatives. In fact, the law has been
used to ban just a handful of the 80.000 existing
chemicals, and not a single one since 11000.
However, among the rays of hope
in the U.S. forecast are a growing number of state
and local measures that are targeting persistent
bioaccumulative toxics like brominated flame retardants,
perfluorinated compounds, and the pesticide lindane.
Many of these efforts have drawn inspiration from
REACH and other international environmental laws.
American companies are also
engaged in transforming their products and their
sectors, substituting hazardous chemicals with
safer alternatives. Civil society is playing a
crucial role in driving these policy and market
changes. The voices of indigenous peoples in the
Arctic burdened by global pollutants, industrial
workers and health professionals are contributing
the moral authority and political will that is
lacking at the national level.
WWF has delivered the paper
to U.S. Embassies in Europe, the US State Department
and the American Chamber of Commerce. "Apparently,
U.S. officials in Europe are not very aware of
the rapid changes taking place within the States
and by U.S. companies to join the global effort
in freeing the marketplace and the environment
of toxic chemicals… So we offered them this handy
guide to the state of play in U.S. domestic reform
to show them what many Americans are already doing",
explains Karl Wagner, WWF’s DetoX Campaign director.
Since REACH was proposed, the
U.S. government has sided with chemical producers
to undermine the European law with exaggerated
claims about the costs to industry, workability
and potential trade impacts. As this paper suggests,
EU decision-makers would do well to look beyond
the U.S. official line and realize that REACH
is already a catalyst for change and raising expectations
for a healthy economy along with a vibrant, toxics-free
world. It’s a unique opportunity for global leadership
of a global issue that no one can afford to miss.
