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17,000 potentially harmful chemicals kept secret under obscure law | Raw Story (http://rawstory.com/2009//01/17000-potentially-harmful-chemicals/ - broken link)
From the second and third paragraph of the Washington Post story which was the basis for you link and was contained on your links website!
The policy was designed 33 years ago to protect trade secrets in a highly competitive industry. But critics -- including the Obama administration -- say the secrecy has grown out of control, making it impossible for regulators to control potential dangers or for consumers to know which toxic substances they might be exposed to.
At a time of increasing public demand for more information about chemical exposure, pressure is building on lawmakers to make it more difficult for manufacturers to cloak their products in secrecy. Congress is set to rewrite chemical regulations this year for the first time in a generation.
Looks like the only thing the government is "working hard" to do is to reform the legislation.
A 1976 law, the Toxic Substances Control Act, mandates that manufacturers report to the Environmental Protection Agency any new chemicals they intend to market, but manufacturers can request that a chemical be kept secret if disclosure "could harm their bottom line,"
The government is helping corporations keep public patents private.
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