ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses statutory mandates related to carcinogen regulation, and examines the risk assessment issues. It focuses on the process of making regulatory decisions for controlling carcinogens. Regulations of carcinogenic substances are designed to reduce health risks. The "balancing laws," such as the Consumer Product Safety Act, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, and Toxic Substances Control Act, put a qualifying word, such as "unreasonable" in front of the word "risk." This construction implies that some risks are to be tolerated, and, in practice, means risks from a substance are to be weighed against other factors in the process of deciding whether and how to regulate. Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act (CAA) are, in general, technology based. For instance, CAA directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce particulate emissions to some percentage of existing levels.
