Dear Senator Burr & Senator Tillis,

We are writing today to respectfully request that you oppose the nomination of Nancy Beck to lead the Consumer Product Safety Division (CPSC). Throughout her career, in her roles both inside and outside of government, Nancy Beck has a long record of opposing and weakening safety standards, jeopardizing the public health and the environment, particularly with respect to toxic chemicals including PFAS.

Nancy Beck has recently been nominated to Chair the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the federal agency responsible for protecting the public against dangers associated with consumer products including toys, children’s products, power tools, cleaning supplies, and some building materials. She has a long history of working at the federal level to protect corporate wealth instead of public health both as a chemical industry lobbyist and a federal employee. Her track record is troubling for the well-being of North Carolina residents.

She was in charge of EPA's Office of Chemical Safety when we learned about GenX, Nafion Byproduct 2, and other toxic PFAS chemicals in our drinking water. She ignored bipartisan requests from North Carolina state and federal officials, including some of your own requests Senator Burr, to have the EPA: 

* Close the loophole in a 2009 EPA consent order with DuPont/Chemours which purportedly allowed DuPont/Chemours to discharge GenX as a byproduct into the Cape Fear River--the primary source of drinking water for a quarter of a million residents downstream from Chemours.


* Quickly finalize an EPA health assessment of GenX--still not done.


* Prioritize GenX and other PFAS for risk evaluation and management under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). 


Under Nancy Beck's leadership, EPA also: 

* Failed to ban the introduction of any new PFAS into the marketplace (and into the environment and our bodies).

* Failed to ban any new uses of existing PFAS. Congress had to order EPA to finalize notice requirements for new uses of some PFAS in products, and Beck then pressed EPA to adopt the weakest approach she could get away with, which won’t protect public health.

* Did nothing to ensure communities have more information about these forever chemicals in their water. 


* Did not issue toxicological test orders for any PFAS, even though Congress gave the EPA expanded authority to do so. 


* Tried to suppress a CDC report showing that EPA health standards for toxic PFAS chemicals are too weak to protect the public.

* Rewrote a rule making it harder for the EPA to assess and regulate health risks of PFOA exposures.

And that's just her track-record regarding PFAS chemicals.

North Carolinians know the toxic solvent, TCE, is linked to cancer, fetal heart defects, liver and kidney toxicity and harm to the immune system. The TCE contamination of drinking water at Camp Lejeune, and the federal government’s slow response to the needs of the community, became a national scandal.

Nancy Beck has made every effort to prevent health protections from TCE and other toxic solvents. She worked to harm our great state when she:

* Blocked proposed rules for protecting workers and consumers from TCE.

* Overruled EPA’s scientists on an evaluation of TCE, resulting in there no longer being adequate protection for pregnant women and children from fetal heart defects.

* Stripped away health protections for workers by imposing a policy that presumes workers are 100% protected by use of personal protective equipment when using toxic chemicals -- including TCE, methylene chloride, 1,4 dioxane, carbon tetrachloride and 1-bromopropane -- a false presumption which the former director of OSHA has called “fundamentally, fatally flawed.”

* Weakened health protections for everyone by imposing a policy that doesn’t consider exposure to contaminated air, soil, food or drinking water when EPA is determining if TCE and other chemicals pose an unreasonable risk.

Most recently, Nancy Beck is linked to the suppression and gutting of the CDC's COVID-19 report on responsibly reopening the country--a valuable document to help state and local governments--as well as small business owners.

Nancy Beck is the wrong person for the job of protecting the public. The last thing North Carolinians and their families need is Nancy Beck as Chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Our children’s health should be protected, not sacrificed.

We appreciate that you Senators Tillis and Burr previously opposed the nomination of Michael Dourson to run EPA’s Toxics office due to his record of advocating for weaker health standards for toxic chemicals, including PFAS and TCE. As you may remember, Dourson -- who co-authored an industry-funded paper with Nancy Beck calling for weaker health standards for over a dozen toxic chemicals including methylene chloride, perchloroethylene, carbon tetrachloride, 1,4 dioxane and dioxin – was never confirmed.

We believe Nancy Beck’s record on toxic chemical is even worse than Michael Dourson’s, and we ask that you publicly oppose her nomination.

Respectfully submitted,