The U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) reviewed the approaches used by the 1976 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to control chemicals that pose an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment, and the European Union’s (EU) recent REACH legislation.

The review focused on approaches requiring chemical companies to develop information on chemical effects, controlling the risks from chemicals, and the process to make the information accessible to the public. The GAO found that REACH follows the precautionary principle in requiring companies to develop information on chemical effects on human health and the environment, whereas TSCA does not make a similar requirement of companies until EPA rule-making requires them to do so. However, U.S. companies are required to submit to EPA any information that may exist on a chemical’s impact on human health or the environment. The EPA relies on voluntary programs as an alternative means of gathering information from chemical companies in order to assess and control the chemicals under TSCA. The GAO reports that these voluntary programs have been slow at data collection, and may not provide the necessary information to identify and control chemical risks. Thus, TSCA places the burden of proof on EPA to demonstrate that a chemical is a potential risk before it can regulate its production and use; and conversely, REACH places a burden on the chemical companies to ensure that the chemical does not pose such a risk, and that measures are identified for handling the chemical safely.

The GAO report can be found at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07825.pdf.