Real-Life Communication -- Solution
Looking at the paragraph again, you begin to explain the legislation
to the owner of the fertilizer company and his chemical-making son:
Toxic
Substances Control Act
Under section 5 of the Toxic Substances
Control Act (TSCA), any person who intends to manufacture or import a new
chemical substance or mixture containing such a substance for commercial purposes
must submit a pre-manufacture notice at least 90 days prior to manufacture
or import.
The Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics has grouped
PMN chemicals with shared chemical and toxicological properties into categories
so that both PMN submitters and EPA reviewers can benefit from the accumulated
data and past decisional precedents, and reviews can be facilitated.
If,
based on an assessment of the potential exposures and releases associated
with the new chemical, the EPA concludes that the new substance may pose an
unreasonable risk to human health or the environment, testing and restrictions
may be required.
"What this all means is that you can't
make a chemical and then use it in a product you're selling to the public
without checking with the agency first," you say. "At least 90 days before
you do anything, you have to submit something called a pre-manufacture notice,
telling them all about the properties of the chemical. This way, both you
and the agency can find out if anyone has made the same chemical, and discover
whether or not it was approved as being safe.
"If they discover your
chemical isn't safe and could pose a health risk to the people who handle
it or use our fertilizers, then they can make you test it -- if you don't,
they won't let you use it commercially."
You may have to be quite persuasive.
Following environmental laws is not just about being nice and keeping people
safe; it is a legal matter. This is critically important for the companies
involved in handling hazardous materials. While saving money in the short
run may look good, the consequences are not worth the risk.
"I'd approach
the owner and explain all the fines and jail time that have been levied against
people who have violated the environmental laws," says Seth Ruskin, a university
chemistry department lab manager.
Usually, once people understand the
penalties, they rethink their plans, he notes.
Often situations become
a problem when people have "a desire not to know the law or they haven't gone
to current training," Ruskin says.
People in older businesses where
training is informal and handed down through the generations may be at greatest
risk for violating the laws, he says. That is why the chemists inside the
company, and professional monitors outside the company, must
take a stand against infractions.