TSCA

On Friday, a diverse coalition advocating for stronger health protections from the toxic and persistent flame retardant decabromodiphenyl ether (DecaBDE) sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for violating a federal law that requires EPA to take all practicable measures to limit exposure to some of the most dangerous chemicals in commerce. The Yurok Tribe, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Learning Disabilities Association of America, Consumer Federation of America, and the Center for Environmental Transformation are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to invalidate loopholes in EPA regulations that would expose infants and children, workers, indigenous cultural and subsistence practitioners, and communities across the country to DecaBDE for years to come and frustrate efforts to get the dangerous chemical out of consumer products and the environment. The coalition is represented by the non-profit environmental law firm Earthjustice.

Community groups representing people living in Louisiana and Texas, along with Earthjustice, are submitting comments asking EPA to consider their communities to be “potentially exposed and susceptible subpopulations.” These communities live in the shadows of facilities that release toxic chemicals into air, water and soil, many of which are produced and released in high volumes in the Cancer Alley area of Louisiana and the Gulf region in both states.