Following her August 3, 2010 Subcommittee on Children’s Health hearing, Senator Boxer plans to introduce a bill that would require federal agencies to work together to investigate “disease clusters” such as autism and also would create a prerequisite of proof of the safety of chemicals before they are used in the market. According to the Centers for Disease Control (“CDC”) December 2009 study, the overall average prevalence of autism is nearly one in 100, a ten-fold increase since 1980.
Some experts and advocacy groups believe that the increase is due to the prevalence of several toxic substances in the environment. The CDC concluded that “[a]lthough improved ascertainment accounts for some of the prevalence increases documented …, a true increase in the risk for children to develop ASD [autism symptom disorders] symptoms cannot be ruled out.” No independent scientific body has established a scientific causal link between autism and exposure to toxic substances and several research studies are underway. As suggested by the CDC, “[e]fforts are needed to understand how complex genetic and environmental factors interact.” The Boxer bill and the proposed Toxic Substance Control Act (“TSCA”) reform bills are intended to modify the existing scheme for regulating chemicals to shift the burden of persuasion from EPA to industry (and therefore shift the costs), change the burden of proof, accelerate the chemicals testing process and promote “green” chemistry principles to reduce the use of “toxic” chemicals. While industry generally has supported TSCA reform, there remains considerable controversy concerning the details of these bills, and about a standard that requires “proof” of the “safety” of chemicals, in an era when even one negative study is likely to be cited as evidence of concern.
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