Collaborative on Health and the Environment :: From Lab to Law: The Phthalates Ban, the Precautionary Principle, and How New Science Becomes New Policy

In late July, lawmakers in the United States passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which includes provisions banning three types of phthalates (plastics softeners) and temporarily banning three other types from certain children's products. The ban is based on limited data suggesting that phthalates act as endocrine disruptors. The CPSI Act, as well as the 2007 European REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) legislation, are landmark examples of a precautionary, rather than reactionary, approach to public health.

How do REACH and the phthalates ban fit into a larger movement toward the precautionary approach? What constitutes "proof of harm" in light of emerging knowledge about the complexity of disease causation? Just how does new science become new policy?

Nearly a hundred CHE Partners and friends joined us on Sep 25, 2008 for a special CHE Policy Education Call exploring these important and timely questions.

The call was moderated by Steve Heilig, MPH, Director of Public Health and Education at the San Francisco Medical Society. The call lasted one hour and will be recorded for archival purposes.

Featured speakers:

Janet Nudelman, Director of Program and Policy at the Breast Cancer Fund
Dr. Ted Schettler, Science Director at the Science & Environmental Health Network
Lisette van Vliet, Toxics Policy Advisor at the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) and Health Care Without Harm