Many of the goods and services we rely on either use or produce substances that may be harmful to the environment or to human health. We have learned that if we do not manage the risks associated with these substances adequately, we could be faced with problems that are either extremely costly or impossible to correct. Scientific studies show this is particularly true of substances that result from human activity and that are toxic, persistent -- that take a long time to break down -- and bioaccumulative -- that collect in living organisms.

As science cannot always accurately predict the effects that a substance will have on the environment or on human health, managing toxic substances effectively requires taking a proactive, cost-effective approach to prevent pollution, rather than reacting after it has already occurred.

The federal government's Toxic Substances Management Policy puts forward a preventive and precautionary approach to deal with all substances that enter the environment and could harm the environment or human health. It provides decision makers with direction and sets out a framework to ensure that federal programs are consistent with the objectives of the policy.

The federal government already administers a number of programs to reduce or eliminate the risks associated with toxic substances. This policy underscores the need to apply pollution prevention principles to all those programs and to respond to the growing public demand for government action to protect the environment and human health while sustaining jobs and a healthy economy.

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