Reform of Toxic Chemicals Law Collapses as Industry Flexes Its Muscles

Reform of Toxic Chemicals Law Collapses as Industry Flexes Its Muscles

Fire retardants in baby blankets, nano-particles in cosmetics, plastics in water bottles and anti-bacterial agents in soaps.

Experts call these and other chemicals emerging contaminants -- compounds that were once thought to be safe, but which scientists now believe may pose a danger to human health.

How those chemicals get into your house -- and your bloodstream -- is no surprise: Loopholes in the federal law that regulates toxic chemicals have allowed manufacturers to sell them without first proving they are safe.

In recent years, however, dozens of studies -- many funded by the federal government -- have shown that chemicals that are ubiquitous in the environment and in consumer goods can cause cancer, wreak havoc on hormones, damage the developing brain, depress the immune system and alter gene expression-among other problems. Earlier this year, the President's Cancer Panel reported, "The true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been grossly underestimated." And Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, which funded many of the top studies, told Congress, "Research has revealed the heightened vulnerability of fetal, infant and child development processes to disruption from relatively low doses of certain chemicals." Birnbaum, like EPA chief Lisa Jackson, urged Congress to revamp the federal law that regulates toxic chemicals, giving the agency greater authority to protect the public.