미국 독성물질통제법(TSCA)의 진화

The Evolution of Toxic Substances Control Act in U.S.

The U.S. s Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 is a pioneering position as a pre - sales control law for industrial chemicals. However, the legislation had been criticized for its ineffectiveness due to the fact that the government had responsibility for proving the risk of injury from products. On the other hand, the European Union enacted REACH Act in 2006, which is a landmark legislation in that it obligates chemical manufacturers to bear responsibility for product safety. Under this background, the United States has amended the Toxic Substances Control Act in 2016 after 40 years from its enactment. The revised law still requires the government to bear responsibility for proving the hazards of the product. However, the amendment law was intended to expand the authority of government agencies to secure information on chemical substances in order to obtain chemical hazard information efficiently. The amendments also strengthened the review of existing chemicals to enhance protection of humans and the environment from the risks of chemicals. Looking at the history of the toxicant control law, the transition from post-sale control to pre-sales control or conversion of burden of proof is highlighted. However, the fundamental motive inherent in such a change is the expansion of hazard information of chemical substances. While the types of chemicals used commercially are large, there is a time and capital limit to assessing the hazards of chemicals. As a result, only a small number of toxic chemicals s information are available, and this situation is not likely to be solved easily. One way to address this problem is to quickly share information on the hazards of chemicals in major countries (the US, Europe, Japan, etc.). In addition, a chemical substance that has already been identified in another country as a toxic chemical substance should be considered toxic substances in domestic law. Chemical Hazard Information should be shared with producers, secondary producers using them, and consumers through the Internet. PHMG and PGH, which were used as humidifier disinfectants, were already known to be toxic to foreign countries. Even though domestic chemical producers were aware of this fact, manufacturers who made consumer products using them insisted that they did not know about it. The fact that many people using humidifier disinfectants have been injured has shown that share of hazard information of chemicals is one of the fundamental problem of chemical substance control legislation.