FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 7, 2025
CONTACT: Aaron Bharucha, Public Relations Associate
(509) 429-1699 and epn-press@environmentalprotectionnetwork.org
EPN: EPA’s Proposed TSCA Rule Weakens Chemical Safety and Puts Public Health at Risk
“Americans deserve to know that the products they use and the air and water around them are safe. This rule abandons that promise—putting chemical companies above public health.”
Washington D.C. – Today, Environmental Protection Network experts submitted comments in response to the EPA’s proposed rule rolling back key provisions of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)—warning that the rule would roll back critical protections and underestimate the real risks of toxic substances.
The proposal would reverse many of the public-health improvements adopted in 2024 and revert to weaker 2017 standards. EPN experts say this change would make it easier for industry to secure chemical approvals while limiting the science EPA can consider.
“This rule would take us backward. EPA is setting itself up to underestimate risk—and putting workers, families, and communities in harm’s way.” said Dr. Betsy Southerland, former Director of Science and Technology in EPA’s Office of Water and EPN volunteer.
EPN warns these changes would open the door to more chemical approvals with less oversight. Chemicals like asbestos, formaldehyde, and vinyl chloride could be deemed “safe” for certain uses even when the science shows otherwise.
“EPA should be strengthening its chemical review process—not gutting it,” said Peter Murchie, Senior Director at EPN and 30-year EPA veteran. “Americans deserve to know that the products they use and the air and water around them are safe. This rule abandons that promise—putting chemical companies above public health.”
Even MAHA Activists Are Sounding the Alarm
Even members of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again (MAHA)” movement—a group that typically supports the administration’s public health agenda—are now publicly opposing the proposed TSCA rule. MAHA Action leaders have urged their followers to submit comments warning that the changes would deepen corporate influence and undermine chemical safety.
“When activists across the spectrum agree that EPA is caving to industry pressure, that tells you something is deeply wrong,” said Murchie. “This TSCA rule isn’t about health—it’s about granting favors to the chemical industry at the expense of community safety.”
The unusual opposition highlights how concern over EPA’s chemical rollbacks now cuts across party and ideological lines—a sign that the proposal’s consequences for public health are too serious to ignore.
Under the proposed rule, EPA would:
- Look at fewer ways people are exposed to chemicals, ignoring risks from air, water, or waste that fall under other laws.
- Assume every worker always has perfect safety gear, which would underestimate real on-the-job dangers.
- Review only some uses of a chemical, instead of looking at how all uses might add up to greater overall risk.
- Stop judging the chemical as a whole, making it harder to see the full picture of potential harm.
- Ignore considerations for at-risk populations like pregnant women, children, and other vulnerable groups, such as people who live near industrial sites.
- Let companies decide what EPA looks at, giving them power to narrow the review and downplay risks.
EPN is urging EPA to withdraw the proposal and restore a transparent, science-based review process that fully accounts for all exposure pathways and protects those most at risk.
You can read EPN’s comments on the TSCA on their website later today.
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Founded in 2017, Environmental Protection Network harnesses the expertise of more than 700 former EPA career staff and confirmation-level appointees from Democratic and Republican administrations to provide the unique perspective of former scientists and regulators with decades of historical and subject matter knowledge. Find all of EPN’s recent press statements here.