Creating Jobs with Safer Chemicals

By Charlotte Brody, RN

When we inventory the many reasons that the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is in desperate need of reform, high on the list is the problem of thousands of untested chemicals. But as Mike Wright of the Steelworkers Union (USW) -- the union that represents most organized chemical workers -- has pointed out, chemicals are actually being tested now. But the testing is going on as an uncontrolled experiment with American workers as the primary guinea pigs and their families and neighbors as the second set of unknowing and unwilling test subjects.

Too much of what we now know about the chemicals that can cause cancer or reproductive damage we know because the harm that was caused to workers and their families was too damaging and too obvious to ignore. A national chemicals policy that depends on thousands of workers and other Americans getting sick is beyond barbarous.

TSCA reform must change that. And it can make that change in a way that staunches the bleeding of American chemical industry jobs that has cost our communities over 300,000 jobs since 1992. TSCA reform can create the opportunity for innovation that can lead to tens of thousands of new good, green jobs for American workers and healthier and safer communities for our children.

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