On September 9, 2013 the investigative news organization The Center for Public Integrity published an article claiming that the U.S. industry lobby has moved from the federal to the state level in order to inhibit a reform of toxic chemical regulation. Ronnie Greene, senior reporter for the Center for Public Integrity comments on a recent effort to reform the regulation of toxic chemicals in Connecticut, U.S.. In co-operation with grassroots activists, the Republican state representative Diana Urban brought a measure to the general assembly floor that would have established a state list of chemicals posing a danger to children called “An Act Concerning Children’s Products and Chemicals of High Concern”. The bill was not put to vote, as legislative critics continued their questions while the appropriation deadline ran out. The article cites Anne Hulick, coordinator for the NGO Coalition for a Safe & Health Connecticut, who states she was surrounded by lobbyists during the last day of session in June 2013. According to her, the bill would have been a small step towards safer chemicals, including only one report every two years.

Green remarks that the bill’s failure was part of a string of victories for the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the industry association of the American chemical industry, in U.S. states from Maine to Washington.

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Center for Public Integrity

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