Article ID: CBB745420064

To Test or Not to Test: Tools, Rules, and Corporate Data in US Chemicals Regulation (September 2021)

unapi

Creager, Angela N. H. (Author)


Science, Technology and Human Values
Volume: 46
Issue: 5
Pages: 975-997


Publication Date: September 2021
Edition Details: Special Issue: Beyond the Production of Ignorance: The Pervasiveness of Industry Influence through the Tools of Chemical Regulation
Language: English

When the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was passed by the US Congress in 1976, its advocates pointed to new generation of genotoxicity tests as a way to systematically screen chemicals for carcinogenicity. However, in the end, TSCA did not require any new testing of commercial chemicals, including these rapid laboratory screens. In addition, although the Environmental Protection Agency was to make public data about the health effects of industrial chemicals, companies routinely used the agency’s obligation to protect confidential business information to prevent such disclosures. This paper traces the contested history of TSCA and its provisions for testing, from the circulation of the first draft bill in the Nixon administration through the debates over its implementation, which stretched into the Reagan administration. The paucity of publicly available health and environmental data concerning chemicals, I argue, was a by-product of the law and its execution, leading to a situation of institutionalized ignorance, the underside of regulatory knowledge.

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Associated with

Article Emmanuel Henry; Valentin Thomas; Sara Angeli Aguiton; Marc-Olivier Déplaude; Nathalie Jas (September 2021) Introduction: Beyond the Production of Ignorance: The Pervasiveness of Industry Influence through the Tools of Chemical Regulation. Science, Technology and Human Values (pp. 911-924). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB745420064/

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Authors & Contributors
Valentin Thomas
Henry, Emmanuel
Colleen Lanier-Christensen
Samuel P. Hanes
Halvorson, Charles
Brian Craig
Concepts
Regulation
Technoscience; science and technology studies
Law and legislation
Environment
Science and politics
Chemical industry
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
19th century
Modern
20th century, late
Places
United States
Europe
Canada
California (U.S.)
Belarus
New York City (New York, U.S.)
Institutions
United States. Environmental Protection Agency
International Agency for Research on Cancer
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
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