Georgia PIRG Citizen Agenda

Bipartisan Progress Balks Chemical Security

MILLIONS AT RISK—More than 1 million Americans live close enough to a chemical plant to suffer serious consequences in the event of an accident or attack. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives approved a bill that fails to require safer alternatives to dangerous chemicals.

In October, the House failed to improve safety protections at chemical facilities. The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006 (HR 5695) would have required the most dangerous chemical and manufacturing plants to look for safer ways of doing business, such as using safer alternatives of toxic chemicals whenever those alternatives exist.

Instead, the chemical industry reached a closed-door deal to displace permanent and comprehensive chemical security provisions with weaker, temporary provisions. The House approved the weaker bill in October.

Across the United States, thousands of industrial facilities use and store hazardous chemicals in quantities that put large numbers of Americans at risk of serious injury or death.

The risk is widespread—according to EPA, over 100 facilities each put more than a million people at risk of injury or death in the event of an accident or terrorist attack.

“The industry deal will take real chemical security solutions off the table and replace them with an inadequate temporary program,” said Staff Attorney Alex Fidis.

“Congress is as close as it has ever been to passing permanent chemical security regulations, but a few lawmakers capitulating to the chemical industry’s demands will derail years of work to protect communities from chemical terrorism.”

Despite industry claims of boosted protections, federal studies confirm that security at most chemical facilities ranges from poor to nonexistent.

Canadian Rx Drug Importing Allowed

Americans will soon be able to legally buy safe and low-cost prescription drugs from Canada, thanks to the efforts of Sen. David Vitter (La.) and others who added prescription drug reimportation language to the Homeland Security bill.

The bill passed both houses of Congress and was signed by the president in October. The victory is a small step, however, toward reining in the high price of prescription drugs.

The bill allows Americans to buy a 90-day supply of prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies.

Advocates were not able to overcome industry opposition to Internet and mail order sales of Canadian drugs, which would help the majority of Americans who cannot make the trip to Canada for prescription drugs. These sales are still prohibited.

The Department of Homeland Security had come under some fire for confiscating critical medications from seniors who, faced with choosing between needed medications and other essential purchases, opted to import their prescription drugs from Canada.

Customs agents seized and destroyed at least 40,000 prescription drug packages at the border before backing down and stopping the seizures in September.

Advocates will build on momentum from these victories to get Congress to leverage better prices from the powerful pharmaceutical industry, including the PIRG-backed Medicare Prescription Drugs Saving and Choice Act (HR 752), which would allow Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices with manufacturers.

Advocates Stand Up To Assault On Food Safety

Last year, food-borne E. Coli outbreaks caused by contaminated spinach heightened the country’s awareness of food safety laws.

Incredibly, Congress was at that time considering legislation that would roll back food safety protections at the behest of the food manufacturers’ lobby.

As this newsletter goes to print, our coalition is working in the Senate to stop the attacks on our food safety protections, and calling on senators to oppose the so-called National Uniformity for Food Act, and any bill that would take away the rights of states to protect people from chemicals in food.

The act would eliminate proven food safety and labeling standards that are more protective than federal standards, even when the federal government has no regulation on the books.

For instance, states currently have the right to post warnings to pregnant women and parents about the significant risks to the brains of fetuses and young children from high levels of mercury in certain kinds of fish.

They would lose this power if the bill went into effect. A PIRG-led coalition of state and local food safety officials and 39 attorneys general oppose the bill.

Our advocates will continue to work during the 110th Congress to stop the assaults on our food safety protections.

Georgia PIRG
Citizen Agenda
Winter 2007
Vol. 7, No. 2

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