The American Nurses Association (ANA) joined a group of health care professionals to testify before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in support of “The Clean Air Act.” Delaware Nurses Association (DNA) member Sarah Bucic, MSN, RN, was among the panelists invited to provide remarks.
On May 3rd-5th, 12 nurses from across the country came to Washington, DC to take part in the three day “50 States United for Healthy Air” conference and lobby day. Recognizing the important impact clean air has on patients and families, ANA partnered with diverse group of organizations including; Earth Justice, Physicians for Social Responsibility, National Council of Churches, the Hip Hop Caucus and others, to develop “50 States United for Healthy Air” to showcase the negative impact polluted air has communities all over the country. In all there were over 70 participants representing all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
During the month of May, I participated in 50 States United for Clean Air, a coalition compromised of nurses, other health care providers, religious groups, and environmental protection organizations. The goal was to encourage elected officials and federal decision makers to allow the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to move forward with reductions to pollution that will protect public health and the environment.
Surprisingly, this column is NOT about health system reform; rather it addresses another needed policy change affecting the health of this country – chemical policy reform. Since the inception of the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), aimed at regulating the chemicals present in our everyday lives, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has only been able to require testing on 200 of the more than 80,000 new chemicals produced and used in the U.S., and just five chemicals have been regulated under this law. Under the current law, chemicals enter our homes, workplaces, and communities with little or no testing for human toxicity. We have garnered substantial scientific evidence linking commonly used chemicals to some of our country’s most serious health problems, such as childhood cancers, asthma, impaired fertility, birth defects, and learning disabilities. ANA has been actively engaged in influencing needed changes at both the federal and state levels since 2006. In partnership with the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families Coalition, Congress will again be asked to overhaul TSCA. States act when Congress doesn’t.
On June 10, the Senate declined to consider a resolution introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska disapproving of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions by 47-53. This dangerous resolution would have put the Senate on record in favor of blocking the EPA from regulating greenhouse-gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.
A recent health report, entitled “The Health Case for Reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act, “ issued by Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, and co-released by the American Nurses Association, provides evidence that the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) has failed to protect the American public from the harmful effects of toxic chemicals.
