President Gerald Ford signed the legislation. Congress passes Toxic Substances Control Act, Sept. 28, 1976

Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act on this day in 1976. It was signed into law by President Gerald Ford on Oct. 11. The legislation empowered the Environmental Protection Agency to track some 75,000 industrial chemicals being produced in or imported into the United States.

In enacting the legislation, Congress found that “human beings and the environment are being exposed each year to a large number of chemical substances and mixtures.” The lawmakers held that “among the many chemical substances and mixtures constantly being developed and produced, there are some whose manufacture, processing, distribution in commerce, use or disposal may present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment” and therefore need to be regulated.


The law charges the environmental agency with screening these chemicals. The EPA requires the corporate reporting and subsequent testing of those substances that could pose a hazard to human health. The EPA can ban the manufacture and importation of those chemicals that government regulators find pose an unreasonable risk to the public.

The law “grandfathers” most existing chemicals. In practice, however, many “grandfathered” substances are actually tested because the European Union makes no such exemption under its own Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals legislation.

Despite the “grandfather” provisions of the act, the EPA since 1977 has banned the sale of nearly all polychlorinated biphenyls, or so-called PCBs, as highly toxic organic pollutants. For many years, PCBs were widely used as cooling and insulating fluids in both commercial and home air conditioning units.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an arm of the Labor Department, protects prospective “whistleblowers” from being fired if they seek to provide the government with evidence that their employers are releasing toxic substances into the environment.

In June of this year, Congress approved an updated toxic chemicals control act that gave the EPA broader powers to impose fees to regulate chemicals. When President Barack Obama signed the bill into law, he remarked that “even in the current polarized political process here in Washington, things can work.” Lawmakers and industry groups were largely supportive of the new law, while environmental advocates offered more mixed reactions.

SOURCE: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

