Chemical Policy Reform



I looked at the policy reform statement about the public's right to know and the right to participate. The background paper was thorough in explaining why it is important the public has this type of information regarding chemicals and the opportunity to act on those findings.

The paper explained different methods that the government could share this information. One of the examples used was the "Beach Pollution Right-to-Know," in which the EPA notifies people when coastal water swimming conditions have unsafe levels of contamination. The law requires both warning signage on the actual beach and also on their national database, although the database can be difficult to search. The paper listed many more examples, showing the pros and cons of each, but that it is possible to create a widespread, effective way to communicate to the public. There were also explanations of ways that people could participate. The authors presented the arguments against a policy like this, and provided evidence as to why those claims were unsubstantiated. Overall, the chemical policy seems well-thought out and possible to implement.


Comments

  1. Jordan DemosOctober 20, 2018 at 6:00 PM

    Stacey,

    I have a particular interest in the paper you read for this blog. Having signage is great, but I don't think it is really regulated that much, if at all. On the surface, it seems like a great policy, it just needs to be enforced more regularly.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Caitlin WintonOctober 21, 2018 at 12:56 PM

    Hi Stacey,

    This is a great example and I'm glad that you wrote about it in this post. Growing in San Diego I remember times when the county would let us know that the waters were unsafe, now I can make the connect to environmental health.

    ReplyDelete

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