M8.5 - Ideal Chemical Policy

After watching all of the provided videos and reading material, essential elements of an ideal chemical policy would be putting the health of the public first and putting more responsibility on the EPA. This would include first reforming the policies and bills for stricter standards of chemicals, and also more enforcement of the policies. One example is using the same policy/standard of "reasonable certainty of no harm" for pesticides on food on the policy/standard for toxic chemicals instead of the current "no unreasonable risk of harm".

From a public health protection perspective, state health departments should be able to do more in an ideal chemical policy such as allowing states to enforce their own strict clean water and air laws and set more protective standards. This also could include states doing their own safety reviews of chemicals if they would like to. An ideal chemical policy puts the health of the public first, as well as actually enforces standards to constantly improve.

Comments

  1. Rudi HernandezOctober 23, 2018 at 1:44 PM

    Hey Matt!
    I agree that the health of the public should always come first. Sadly, I feel that our class/cohort/major is the only one who thinks that way. There should absolutely be more chemical policy and the EPA should step up. Great examples and great post, thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Angela GOctober 24, 2018 at 9:36 PM

    I agree- there needs to be policy reform and actual enforcement and regulation of chemical use. we need to focus on who is being impacted and tailor policies around that. I like your suggestions of increased state regulations that could possibly make decisions more accurately and safely for the public. Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete

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