Sustainable Development

There are certain books which are considered environmental conservation classics: Bill McKibben's End of Nature, E.O.Wilson's Biophilia, or Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang. These cautionary books when read decades later read, not like history, but rather, depressingly, still achingly true, although none more so, perhaps, then Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. No one was a more persuasive bellwether of the risks posed by chemical contaminants not only to our ecosystems, but also, to human health.

Nearly fifty years since her book was first published to wide ranging public appeal, not much has changed when it comes to toxics and environmental conservation. Of the roughly 82,000 chemicals in commerce, the US EPA under the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, which regulates the introduction of new and existing chemicals, has only tested some 200. They've issued regulations to control a mere five. Known carcinogens such as asbestos are not banned under the TSC, nor are these compounds in production tested to see how they interact with each other.

The Problem, according to a February 26, 2009 Environment News Service article lies in the fact that the "statute requires EPA to show that a proposed chemical regulation is less burdensome than any alternative and that the risk could not be sufficiently reduced under some other law. Furthermore, it must show a chemical presents an "unreasonable risk" to human health."

Not only does it result in a burden so high that is all but impossible to meet, but it also tends to position the bill in such a way that the alternative to one toxic chemical, is, a less toxic chemical. This belies the reality, that we are increasingly learning management techniques - as hi-lighted in my piece on Greening Malaria that often times the best solution is not a chemical one.

Increasingly, however, it seems that slowly, very slowly, we may be crawling towards more transparency and regulation. In March of this year, the EPA provided free web access, to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Chemical Substance Inventory which is consolidated list of thousands of industrial chemicals maintained by the agency. Users can even tell which of these chemicals are used industrially in their zip code.

Even more encouragingly, the EPA is pressing the government to give the EPA more power to regulate chemicals. Appearing before congress this past Thursday, to urge congress to pass the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010, sponsored by Rep. Bobby Rush (D., Ill.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.), which would give greater power to the EPA to require information from chemical manufacturers , and to ban and restrict chemicals deemed unsafe.

Whether or not the bill passes that we're having this discussion in the first place means hopefully one day we'll all be able to clean our homes and ourselves without first having to make sure that doing so won't expose us to dangerous neurotoxins.