The Maine-based Environmental Health Strategy Center has joined two lawsuits that challenge the Trump administration’s rule changes to how toxic chemicals are regulated.
Center Deputy Director Patrick MacRoy says the changes allow the Environmental Protection Agency to pick and choose how extensively — or not — to evaluate toxic chemicals.
“So we have a situation where EPA won’t necessarily be looking at the whole range of potential hazards,” he says. “What’s at stake here is how we regulate chemicals in the United States, and how we make sure that products and even things that enter our food are safe for people and don’t cause health risks down the road.”
MacRoy says the lawsuit contends that the Trump administration illegally rewrote rules drafted under the Obama administration that were intended to strengthen toxic chemical regulation. He says the rules also block states from setting their own standards on chemicals that have been evaluated by the EPA.
The Environmental Health Strategy Center is joining with the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Learning Disabilities Association of America and United Steelworkers, among others, in the lawsuits.
