Mark Gruenberg at People’s World reports from Washington, D.C. that the Donald Trump has crafted plans to increase Workers’ exposure to hazardous chemicals.
The National AFL-CIO is urging Federal Lawmakers to stop that dangerous crusade. In letters to four Congressional Committees concerned with job safety and with regulating chemicals, the National AFL-CIO said the Toxic Substances Control Act, first enacted in 1976 and strengthened 40 years later, should be left alone save for “mandatory fee renewals and nothing broader.”
In its final months, the Democratic Biden Administration wanted to extend the law, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforces, to cover more chemicals – including asbestos, a known cancer-causing substance and its particles and dust which Workers are often exposed to by inhalation, and formaldehyde.
But that’s not what corporate honchos want from Donald Trump’s EPA, which administers the act and regulates the chemicals and their exposure to Workers.
The National Association of Manufacturers backs the EPA’s plan to weaken Chemical Exposure Rules. That corporate lobby praises Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s plan to “right-size chemical risk evaluation.” It calls the Biden Administration’s plan to strengthen the law and toughen regulation of chemicals’ risk to Workers “confusing, unrealistic, and detached from reality.”
