In recent years, such disasters resulting from toxic chemicals as those at Love Canal, New York, and in Bhopal, India, have increased awareness of the hazards associated with their use. In response to such concerns, "right-to-know" statutes and regulations have been enacted on both the state and federal levels. In 1990, Congress passed the Pollution Prevention Act, but the provisions of this legislation are relatively limited when compared to the toxics use reduction (TUR) statutes that have been enacted in at least 26 states since 1989. In the 1990s, similar legislation was passed in Great Britain and other European countries.

State TUR statutes, sometimes called pollution prevention statutes, are designed to motivate businesses to reduce their use of toxic chemicals. Most such statutes set specific overall goals, such as a 50% reduction in the use of toxic chemicals, with that reduction being phased in over a...