Tribal Exposure to Toxics Work

The health and ecological risks with which we are concerned largely emanate from a set of unique exposures to toxic chemicals that the largely tribal communities face. The Toxics Substances Control Act (TSCA) is the environmental statute that governs the amount and type of chemicals allowed in nearly all of the products we buy. To assess whether a chemical is safe, or should be banned or managed, the USEPA Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) performs comprehensive risk assessments of each chemical.  Unfortunately, these assessments are not relevant to tribal lifeways, so that tribes are not represented in the final analysis of whether a chemical is safe. 

We have the honor of working with the National Tribal Toxics Council (www.tribaltoxics.org), the Tribal Partnership Group for OPPT, in their efforts to advance the formal embedment of tribal-specific parameters and exposure scenarios into toxic chemical risk assessments carried out under TSCA. This important and vital effort is slowly rectifying the omission of tribal concerns and we are proud to contribute coordinative support and additional technical expertise.