Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

I recently obtained – not without some effort on both EPA’s and my part – a scanned copy of a 1992 report commissioned by EPA innocuously titled “Influence of CBI Requirements on TSCA Implementation,” authored by the now-defunct Hampshire Research Associates.  I subsequently found a copy in an old EPA docket, located here (6 MB PDF file).

This understated yet remarkable report is a veritable treasure trove of information that painstakingly documents the rampant rise in illegitimate confidential business information (CBI) claims made by the chemical industry in the first decade after passage of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) – and the very limited options available to EPA to stop such activity (despite recent admirable efforts on its part). Read more »

Cal Baier-Anderson, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist.

An article recently published in the journal Macromolecules reports on the development of a new process that the authors claim can prevent the migration of phthalates from PVC plastic.   This “breakthrough” will undoubtedly be used to argue that industry should be allowed to continue to use a retinue of toxic chemicals in the manufacture of PVC destined for use in a broad variety of applications. 

Concern for consumer exposures is often the main argument made against the use of toxic chemicals in consumer applications.  With evidence of exposure to chemicals like phthalates in nearly everyone who has been tested, including pregnant women, this is understandable. 

But even if the new claims are proven to be true, there are many other reasons we need to find safer substitutes for such chemicals: worker exposures, environmental releases and end-of-life recycling and disposal issues, to name a few.  The potential impacts from continued use of toxic chemicals must be examined across their entire lifecycle. Read more »

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

After EPA announced yesterday that it will deny certain confidential business information (CBI) claims that have masked the identity of risky chemicals, two chemical industry trade associations responded favorably, saying they “welcome” the move as “the right thing to do.” 

Entirely missing from their responses, however, was any acknowledgment of the fact that the EPA policy shift would not have been necessary but for the huge number of illegitimate CBI claims made by none other than the member companies of those same trade associations.  In a classic case of industry-speak, the companies who have been effectively stealing information from the public about their chemicals try to obscure their nefarious role by now saying they welcome the new alarm system they have forced EPA to install.

Read more »

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

The Safer Chemicals Healthy Families campaign, of which EDF is a founding member, is releasing an important report today:  "The Health Case for Reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act."  This report connects the growing number of dots linking chemical exposures to a number of serious chronic diseases that are rising in incidence.  These include certain types of cancer, including childhood cancers; learning and developmental disabilities; Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease; reproductive health and fertility problems in both women and men; and asthma.

The report provides a succinct review of the state of the science in each of these areas, and argues that the U.S. has an opportunity to help ameliorate both the rise in these chronic diseases and their associated health care costs — by enacting comprehensive reform of our nation's policies addressing the safety of chemicals.

Check out the report and news release.

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

Tomorrow's Federal Register will contain a short notice from EPA that partially corrects a decades-old Agency practice that has denied the public access to the identity of chemicals that present substantial risks.

This welcome action begins to pull back the curtain on the chemical secrecy that has been a hallmark of life for the public under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).  As I noted in a previous post, this action is one of a host of changes needed to remedy the major excesses and abuses of confidentiality under TSCA.  EPA's action makes clear that some things can be done even as we await TSCA reform.

Read more »

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

Mr. Joe Householder, Executive Director of the chemical industry front group, the Coalition for Chemical Safety, posted a comment the day before yesterday responding to my last blog post about a local Montana chapter of the coalition.  Here’s my reply:

Mr. Householder:  It certainly seems you want to have your cake and eat it, too.  The Coalition obviously has launched a concerted effort to sign up small businesses, and it continues to purport that it’s open to anyone – all in an effort to claim, as it does on its website, that it’s comprised of “people like you.”  The Montana small businesswoman quoted in the radio story is a Coalition member and was handing out Coalition literature at a Coalition-sponsored event at the time she was interviewed.

Yet as soon as she (or, I presume, any one of your other members) speaks up and says something at odds with the chemical industry line, you quickly disavow her, saying she is not an “official spokesperson.”
Read more »

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

I’ll bet that got your attention.  Surely I jest, you’re thinking.  Well, on December 2, Montana Public Radio’s Evening Edition included a segment in which a spokesperson for the new chemical industry front group, the Coalition for Chemical Safety about which I blogged a few weeks ago, publicly calls for an all-out ban on the controversial endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA).  Here’s the clip (5 MB mp3 file). Read more »

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

I’m excited to point you to a column, “Toxic Ignorance is Not Bliss,” just posted on our website.  The column is written by Dominique Browning, formerly the longtime editor-in-chief of House & Garden, who is partnering with EDF via a monthly column.

The subtitle of the column is “Why I'm Outraged About BPA and Other Chemicals, and What We Can Do.”  Here's a sample to get you to read more:

We should be worried about what amounts to a huge, uncontrolled human testing experiment. Without agreeing to it, without understanding it, without even knowing it, we have become the chemical industry’s guinea pigs.

Click here to keep reading.

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

This week’s issue of Business Week has an intriguing cover story titled “Look Who’s Stalking Wal-Mart,” with a cute cover graphic.  It’s all about the latest retail trend in downmarketing.  But in the same issue is another piece that might well be titled “Look Who Retailers are Stalking” – with the “who” being the chemical industry and the why being the need for meaningful chemical policy reform. Read more »

Cal Baier-Anderson, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist.

Growing up in the 1970s, Mischief Night was a big deal for me.  When I was in grade school, hoards of us kids took to our neighborhood just after dark to wreak innocent havoc.  More fun than Halloween, I recall soaping up car windows and decorating neighbors' trees with toilet paper.  (What were our parents thinking?)

When a wonder toy called Silly String hit the stores, Mischief Night turned psychedelic with crazy vibrant colors issuing in long streams from an aerosol can!  And what was the harm?  Silly String simply dried up and blew away.  Who knew that we might actually be spewing a brew of toxic chemicals?  Read more »