Monthly Archives: April 2009

Questionable risk decisions under ChAMP: Chlorobenzenes Category

Cal Baier-Anderson, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist and Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

Our analysis of EPA’s risk decision under ChAMP for this category of toxic chemicals vividly illustrates how EPA has failed to adopt a health-protective approach to its screening of HPV chemicals.  Rather, it misclassifies or understates these chemicals’ hazards, asserts that existing regulations are sufficient even when they are quite old or do not cover identified exposures, and naively assumes that children will not be as exposed as adults to consumer products used in the home unless they are intended for their use.  Finally, this case demonstrates that manufacturers are not reporting to EPA even readily available information on their chemicals’ uses.  Read More »

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Questionable risk decisions under ChAMP: Alkyl Nitriles Category

Cal Baier-Anderson, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist and Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

This post is the first of a number to come that will examine in some detail specific chemicals and chemical categories for which EPA has made questionable or flawed risk decisions under ChAMP. Many of these problems can be traced to EPA’s near-exclusive reliance on incomplete or poor-quality data provided by manufacturers, or its need to resort to unsupported assumptions in the absence of sufficient data. For each posting, we’ll summarize what is known about production and use of the chemical(s); describe EPA’s hazard, exposure, risk and priority rankings; and then discuss why we question or disagree with EPA’s decisions. First up: a category of three alkyl nitriles. Read More »

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ChAMP: Not exactly a heavyweight

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

[Earlier posts in this series can be found here and here.]

Over the past decade, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has pursued a voluntary program, the High Production Volume (HPV) Chemical Challenge, as a means to fill the enormous gaps in publicly available data on the hazards of the most widely used chemicals in the U.S. Using the Challenge data, EPA has recently begun assessing HPV chemicals under its Chemical Assessment and Management Program (ChAMP). But is ChAMP up to the job? Read More »

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EPA’s New Chemicals Program: TSCA dealt EPA a very poor hand

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

[The first post in this series can be found here.]

Some in the chemical industry point to EPA’s New Chemicals Program as a robust program, one that could serve as a model for reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).  Most recently, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA) did so in its testimony at a recent House of Representatives subcommittee’s TSCA oversight hearing.  So just how robust is EPA’s program on new chemicals?  Read More »

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What should TSCA reform look — and not look — like?

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

For the past several years, EDF has been in the thick of discussions about whether the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA) needs reform and, if so, what form it should take.  Happily, the former question has largely been answered:  With only a few remaining holdouts, even the chemical industry acknowledges the time has come.  So now we can move on to what such reform should look like – and what it should not. Read More »

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Our blog is expanding!

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

You may have noticed some subtle changes to the look of this page.  That’s because EDF has decided to expand the focus of this blog to include the policy, legislative, regulatory and scientific issues surrounding the health and environmental impacts of chemicals, as well as nanomaterials. Read More »

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