"Will New Chemical Regulations Keep Toxics off Our Plates?"

"There has been a lot of discussion lately about the chemicals that get added to our food and sprayed on or around it while it’s growing. But science shows that even if we removed the pesticides and additives, we’re all eating and drinking a number of other chemicals with unintended consequences every day.

Flame retardants known as PBDEs are turning up regularly in meat and poultry and other animal products, mercury is in now most wild seafood, and phthalates are turning up in fast food—just to name a few.

But a bill approved last week by the Senate could help change all that. Eventually. The new bill revises the Toxic Substances Control Act, (TSCA) our nation’s main chemical safety law. This is the first update of the law since it was first enacted in 1976. And, as you might guess, a lot has changed since then."

Elizabeth Grossman reports for Civil Eats on June 15, 2016.