Update of law on toxic chemicals, years in the making, a victory

WASHINGTON — Four years ago, retired San Francisco firefighter Tony Stefani, stricken with a rare form of pelvic cancer tied to flame retardants, sat before a Senate committee as a living example of how the federal government allowed tens of thousands of potentially toxic chemicals to be used in household products that Americans assumed were safe.

Last week, in a White House auditorium dotted with cancer survivors and widows and chemical industry lobbyists, President Obama signed into law the first update of the Toxic Substances Control Act, first signed by President Gerald Ford in 1976.

Under the new version of the act, the government will slowly begin to require federal testing of industrial chemicals and could lead to a ban on asbestos, a known lethal carcinogen still in public commerce.

For years, Boxer stubbornly blocked proposed reforms of the toxic substances law to protect California’s stricter chemical standards, at one point battling her personal friend, the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, after whom the reform is named.

The bipartisanship on the issue grew out of industry frustration with the proliferation of state chemical regulations that filled the vacuum resulting from the weak federal law, which was further hamstrung by court rulings that limited the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to carry out the law.

Three decades ago, voters approved Proposition 65, a law that requires the state to update and publish a list of chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects or other reproductive harm.

The bill also assigns a priority for the EPA to review toxic chemicals that are known to persist in the environment and accumulate in the food chain, including in the human body.

Near him stood Sen. Mike Crapo, the Idaho Republican Boxer worked with to make “Trevor’s Law” part of the legislation, requiring the government to identify and track “cancer clusters” such as the one found in Schaefer’s logging community.

Linda Reinstein of Manhattan Beach (Los Angeles County), who co-founded the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization in 2004 after her husband, Alan, died of mesothelioma, broke down in tears as she described a six-year fight against the chemical industry to pass the new law.

Even if the EPA, whose budget is under constant assault from conservative lawmakers, receives full funding, it will take decades for the agency to examine the tens of thousands of chemicals in current use that have not been regulated.