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A bipartisan bill to update regulation of harmful chemicals for the first time in nearly 40 years won approval from a Senate committee Tuesday, moving it closer to a vote in the full Senate.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the bill, 15-5. Four Democrats joined all 11 committee Republicans to support the bill, which would set safety standards for tens of thousands of chemicals that now are unregulated. The bill also would offer protections for people vulnerable to the effects of chemicals such as pregnant women, children and workers, and set deadlines for the Environmental Protection Agency to act.
If enacted into law, the bill would be the first significant update to the Toxic Substances Control Act since the law was adopted in 1976.
"This isn't a perfect bill, but it is a very good one," said Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., one of the bill's lead sponsors.
"The American people want a law that protects them and their families from chemicals like asbestos, BPA, formaldehyde, styrene and so many other hazardous substances."Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, the bill's chief Republican sponsor, said action on toxic chemical regulation is
"long overdue," and said the bill approved by the environment panel "provides the necessary updates to ensure chemical safety in the United States for decades to come."
Noting strong opposition from some Democratic senators, including California Sen. Barbara Boxer, Vitter said lawmakers have a choice: support a bipartisan compromise or remain "stuck with existing law."
Regulation of chemicals took on new urgency after a crippling spill in West Virginia last year contaminated drinking water for 300,000 people. The chemical, crude MCHM, is one of thousands unregulated under current law.The Senate bill cleared a key hurdle this week when three Democratic senators — Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Jeff Merkley of Oregon — agreed to support the bill after winning several compromises, including one that makes it clear that states may act to regulate a chemical if EPA misses required deadlines.
The compromise language also ensures that states will be able to regulate certain chemicals while EPA is evaluating them for safety and makes clear that states may co-enforce the law, with the condition that penalties may not be collected from both the state and the federal government for the same violation.
Democrats had complained that an earlier version of the bill would have pre-empted aggressive regulation by states such as California, Vermont and Massachusetts that monitor chemicals closely."This bipartisan agreement greatly strengthens the ability of states to
protect citizens from toxic chemicals when the
federal government has failed to do so," Merkley said in a statement.
"It's a vast improvement over the broken law currently in force and an important step in protecting families across America."Booker said the changes mean the bill is fit to bear its name in honor of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat who pushed for chemical reform before his death in 2013. Booker, who holds what had been Lautenberg's seat in the Senate, said Lautenberg "made strengthening federal laws to better protect Americans from toxic substances and pollutants one of his top priorities."
Boxer, the senior Democrat on the environment panel, said changes negotiated by Democrats "got rid of a horrible bill," but said
the measure as adopted was still inadequate to protect families and workers from harmful chemicals."The legislation does nothing to ensure that terrifying disease clusters of children's cancers are addressed" and omits any mention of asbestos, a substance that kill as estimated 10,000 Americans every year, Boxer said.She and other Democrats vowed to continue to call attention to what they see as the bill's flaws before a vote in the full Senate, expected later this year.
Published on Apr 23, 2015
Audio for this video here: (minus commercials and chit chat) HOUR THREE - CHRIS HARRIS - A SECOND FAILED ON PURPOSE ROBOT AT THE FUKUSHIMA PLANT AND THE 200 YEARS OF INCOMPETENCE TO KILL MOST OF THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE AND 1/3 OF THE OCEANS AND SEALIFE WITH WORMWORD OR RADIATION TOXICITY ... ! [Link]
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Tour of Fukushima Daiichi with Arnie Gundersen 10/3/13 [Link]
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Hawaiian Islands Contaminated With Ballistic Uranium [Link]
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JOINT COMMUNIQUE BETWEEN JAPAN AND THE FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL [Link]
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TV: Nuclear waste spilling into Pacific Ocean after power outage hits Fukushima plant — Radiation Expert: Site is so radioactive and unstable “it may never be contained”
CNN: “Strange green glow” seen inside Fukushima reactor — “Yellow, blue-green and other colors could be seen”
CBS: Worst may not be over from Fukushima — “Effects of radiation have become much more severe”
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VIDEO: Extremely rare whale washes up in Northeast Japan — Just one sighting of species in history — Similar creature found dead nearby
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Top US Nuclear Physicist: “Iodine-131 will be lethal after ingestion of 30 billionths of a gram” — Main worry is not a Chernobyl-type accident, rather it’s a melt-through of containment vessel — “Not possible to disprove China Syndrome”
Japan Times: Over 150 dolphins wash ashore at multiple locations — 50 miles from Fukushima border — Could be largest mass stranding ever reported in nation’s history — Govt’ Expert: “The dolphins may have had psychological problems… We don’t see any immediate signs of cancer” (VIDEO)
Officials: “Such a bizarre thing” off California coast — “We’re seeing multiple aborted fetuses every day”
Gov’t Experts: “Astounding” levels of radiation measured in U.S. from Fukushima — Around 500,000 times our normal levels…
National Geographic: Newly discovered mass mortality in sea creatures along California coast — Body parts falling off, animals ‘wasting away’
“BREAKING NEWS – Scientists detect Fukushima radiation on North American shores”
13 baby gray whales and 55 dolphins found dead on West Coast
Times: “The worst possible result” revealed at Fukushima — Plant Chief: Centuries may pass before humans find a way to deal with molten cores — Top Official: “We have no idea” what to do, “the technology simply doesn’t exist… I can’t say it’s possible” (VIDEOS)
Experts: Pacific food web crashing — “What’s going on? Where are the fish? Where did they go?”
AP: Melted fuel may have “dropped even beyond” the bottom of Fukushima plant — ‘China Syndrome’ predicted by US gov’t analysis — IAEA Expert: Pools of corium beneath reactors are up to 2 stories high (VIDEO)
Times: 200-year wait faced at Fukushima — Plant Chief: “No idea” how to decommission reactors… “the technology does not exist”; “No viable method” to deal with melted fuel; “So many uncertainties… we don’t have accurate information” — Engineers declared problems ‘insurmountable’
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