AUGUSTA, Maine - A Maine-based environmental health group is sharply criticizing a new version of the federal Toxic Substances Control Act that the U.S. Senate passed last night.
Mike Belliveau is executive director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center. He says the Senate bill is a "giveaway" to the chemical industry.
Belliveau says the Senate bill would take away states' rights to regulate dangerous chemicals if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun to study the possibility of danger. And he says in Maine, that would effectively roll back an already-existing law.
"We have a state law, the Kids Safe Products Act, that was passed in 2008, that has enabled Maine to take action to drive hormone-disrupting chemicals like BPA out of baby food packaging," Belliveau says.
The FDA's current stance is that BPA is safe at current levels in food.
Belliveau says if the Senate version of the bill were to become law, Maine and other states wouldn't be able to provide that kind of leadership on regulating dangerous chemicals.
The Senate version of the bill must be reconciled with the House version - which does not prevent states from taking action on chemicals under study by the EPA - before the bill can become law. Belliveau says his organization is hoping the final version will preserve states' rights to regulate chemicals.
