The House of Energy and Commerce Subcommittee held a hearing recently to consider the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act, H.R. 5820, which would further shape the Toxic Substances Control Act, a federal measure enacted in 1976. If passed, the new law will require manufacturers to prove that their products are safe to use in the way they’re intended to be before being permitted to market them to the public. The Toxic Chemicals Safety Act would also empower the Environmental Protection Agency to better protect the public from known toxins.

The proposed law, sponsored by both Rep. Bobby Rush (Democrat, Illinois) and Rep. Henry Waxmen (Democrat, California), would change the way in which dangerous products are dealt with, shifting responsibility away from consumers and back onto manufacturers. Presently, manufacturers cannot be held responsible for creating dangerous products if they aren’t aware of the product’s dangerous properties. This law could change all of that.

The necessity for improvements to the Toxic Substances Control Act, and more specifically, the necessity of granting the EPA more power over manufacturers of potentially dangerous products, is clear. Laws which are currently in place are insufficient for protecting the public from toxic substances. The EPA, for example, attempted to ban asbestos use in the United States during the 1980′s, reacting to reports that the substance caused a terminal cancer known as mesothelioma after mild to heavy exposure. The law which disallowed the substance, the Asbestos Ban and Phase Out Rule, was later overturned when Corrosion Proof Fittings, an asbestos advocating business superpower, successfully sued the EPA for, in effect, crippling its profits. Asbestos, now conclusively linked to several fatal diseases, remains legal in the United States to this day, even while asbestos related illnesses claim some 100,000 lives every year.

Asbestos isn’t the only threat to American health that’s available “off the shelf.” Pesticides, cleaning products, building materials, adhesives, medicines and even processed foods contain chemicals whose effects are unknown and potentially dangerous.

The Toxic Chemicals Safety Act could help to protect consumers by forcing manufacturers to do their homework before releasing their products to the public.

“This process is well worth the additional investment of time,” said Bobby Rush, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, “[the law will enable] the EPA to better regulate, understand the properties of, and manage the health and environmental risks associated with the tens of thousands of chemicals that we find in our communities, homes, personal and work spaces, food and our bodies.”