Addressing Environmental Contamination Through Market Regulations: Comparative Lessons From The United States And The European Union

Abstract

The existing legal frameworks in the United States (US) and the European
Commission (EC) that regulate industrial chemicals represent divergent
methods for controlling market entry, market restriction, and subsequent
regulatory oversight when enforcement of these mechanisms fail. Contrary to
the prevailing view that the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and
Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) law, which amended the US Toxic
Substances Control Act (TSCA), is the ‘gold standard’ for chemical regulation,
the central premise of this article is that the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical
Safety Act for the 21st Century provides unique opportunities for preventing
environmental releases from new and existing chemical substances, which
amounts to, if not more stringent, than REACH.