A trade association founded more than 140 years ago as the Manufacturing Chemists’ Association and is now an operation with a $100 million annual budget representing the interests of 155 corporate members, including chemical companies Dow, DuPont and Olin; pharmaceutical firms Bayer, Eli Lilly and Merck; and petrochemical conglomerates BP, ExxonMobil and Shell. Over the years, the organization has successfully delayed, weakened and blocked science-based health, environmental and workplace protections at the state, national and even international levels.
According to a recent Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) report, “Bad Chemistry,” the ACC is the same reason why the endocrine disruptor bisphenol A (BPA) is still in food containers, toxic flame retardants are still in furniture, tens of thousands of untested, unregulated chemicals are currently in commercial use, why there are no federal restrictions on formaldehyde emissions in the home considering it was first recognized as a health threat some 30 years ago, and the reason many more toxic chemicals are still in so many products after having been determined harmful.
For example, the ACC has lobbied against establishing federal rules on silica dust exposure and disclosing the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. It has been instrumental in limiting community access to information about local chemical plants. And it is spearheading an industry campaign to undermine the first-ever federal standards for formaldehyde emissions from furniture, flooring and other common items found in U.S. homes.
“Companies shouldn’t be allowed to get away with hiding behind their trade associations to influence the political process without accountability,” says Gretchen Goldman, a UCS analyst and lead author of “Bad Chemistry.” “This is the same playbook the tobacco industry and oil companies have used to undermine science. People and communities suffer when chemical companies can buy industry-friendly policies.”
In the case of Formaldehyde
According to “Bad Chemistry,” the ACC is central to the industry’s effort to undermine the formaldehyde standard, leading a loose coalition that includes furniture makers, the Chinese government, and lawmakers from states with significant furniture manufacturing. The ACC website emphasizes the chemical’s “invaluable role” and overstates the effectiveness of voluntary standards. The trade group also distorts the scientific evidence about formaldehyde by falsely claiming that indoor exposure is too low to be harmful and questioning the science linking the chemical to asthma and cancer.
But the ACC has been doing a lot more than just posting disinformation on the Internet. Along with Koch Industries — owner of Georgia-Pacific, one of the largest U.S. formaldehyde and plywood manufacturers — it has been currying favor on Capitol Hill with large sums of lobbying and campaign cash.
From 2010 through 2014, the ACC spent more than $51 million to lobby members of Congress and the Obama administration. Over that same period, it contributed $1.46 million to federal campaigns. And during the 2014 election cycle alone, it spent $1.8 million on more than 6,000 political ads.
Two beneficiaries of the formaldehyde lobby’s largesse are Sens. James Inhofe of Oklahoma and David Vitter of Louisiana, who both have played a key role in slowing the EPA’s efforts. As far back as 2004, for example, Inhofe pushed the agency to delay an assessment of formaldehyde’s health risks. When the agency finally released its findings in 2009, Vitter further delayed action by holding up the appointment of an EPA research and development director and demanding that then-EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson agree to have the National Academy of Sciences review the agency’s assessment. Vitter’s efforts to hold up progress have resulted in two academy reports, both of which confirmed what was already known: Formaldehyde is a human carcinogen.
The saga of the formaldehyde standard is not over, and there likely will be more industry-sponsored efforts to weaken it further. But, as noted above, formaldehyde is just one of more than 62,000 chemicals whose use is grandfathered by the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), and more than a few have been linked to serious health problems. So the overarching question is whether Congress will update the law in a way that will enable the EPA to protect the public from harmful chemicals.
Congress has been deliberating how to reform TSCA since 2008, and there are bills currently in play in both the House and Senate. Whether either bill ultimately strengthens TSCA remains to be seen. The fact that the ACC’s annual lobbying budget has jumped 300 percent over the last six years suggests that the trade group sees TSCA as a critical issue and is applying its money and muscle to influence lawmakers.
Outside of the ACC and its allies, most would agree we need chemical policies that protect public health and safety, not industry profits. But how do we get there? An important first step is to hold chemical companies and the ACC accountable for their efforts to influence decision-makers and undermine science. The public has a right to know about potentially harmful chemicals in products as well as who is influencing its elected officials and regulators.
“We have to base public health policy on the best available science and not the priorities of chemical manufacturers,” Goldman says. “And that means getting safer chemical alternatives into our products. Our elected officials need to step up and put their constituents first — not their campaign contributors.”
Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/elliott-negin/toxic-influence-how-a-che_b_8307272.html
