When it comes to commercial chemicals, the presumption of innocence may be coming to an end. The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) allows the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to test chemicals that pose a health risk - but only when it has evidence of harm. Since the law was passed in 1976, the agency has restricted just five chemicals, out of tens of thousands on the market. "It's a deeply flawed bill that needs to be rewritten," says Terry Davies, an environmental policy expert who worked on the act and is now at Resources for the Future, a nonprofit research organization in Washington DC.
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