Democrats introduce US - REACH bill  20 May 2008 23:29  [Source:
ICIS news]  WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--Democrat members of Congress
introduced a bill on Tuesday to establish a US version of the
EU’s REACH, saying industry must prove that some 80,000
chemicals in commerce are safe if they are to continue in use.
Senator Frank Lautenberg (Democrat-New Jersey) said that “it is
critical that we modernise our nation’s chemical safety laws”.
Sponsored in the House of Representatives by Democrats
Hilda Solis and Henry Waxman, both of California, the “Kids Safe
Chemicals Act” would establish a safety standard for each of the
80,000 chemicals that the sponsors said are in US commerce and
consumer products.   Like the EU’s programme for registration,
evaluation and authorisation of chemicals (REACH), the pending
bill uses the precautionary principle approach, requiring that
substances be proven safe for human and environmental exposure
before they are allowed in commerce.   Existing US chemicals
regulatory law, chief