EDF Health

Flame retardants impair normal brain development: Even more evidence, still no action

By Jennifer McPartland / Published: May 28, 2014

Jennifer McPartland, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist.

Today a new study was published linking fetal exposure to certain flame retardants called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) with cognitive and behavioral effects that develop later in childhood.  While the specific findings in this study are new, the link between these types of neurodevelopmental effects and exposure to PBDEs is not. 

Numerous scientific studies and governmental bodies across the globe have flagged the health effects of PBDEs.  At the same time, current proposals by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to better understand the hazards and sources of certain PBDEs remain in limbo.  Read on to learn more about today’s new study on PBDEs and the stalling of EPA initiatives to help protect us from exposure to them.  Read More »

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A gift for mothers (and daughters, and all of us): New tools for breast cancer monitoring and prevention

By / Published: May 12, 2014

Rachel Shaffer is a research assistant.

Our mothers are no doubt on our minds right now, after Mother’s Day weekend. And I am no exception, especially since, as I blogged about last year, this month is the anniversary of my own mother’s breast cancer diagnosis.

This year though, in addition to celebrating my mother’s recovery, I can find hope in a new report from researchers at the Silent Spring Institute that provides guidance to improve our ability to screen for and study potential breast carcinogens — thereby enhancing efforts to prevent this widespread disease. Good news, certainly… and a timely gift for all of the women in our lives.

This new report describes biomonitoring methods for 102 breast carcinogens with high exposure potential and identifies existing cohort studies into which these methods could be integrated immediately. These chemicals are among the 216 previously identified by the authors as chemicals linked to mammary gland tumors in rodents. By testing for exposure markers of these priority breast carcinogens in the population, researchers should be able to better identify and study high-risk groups, and regulators will be better able both to limit dangerous exposures and to demonstrate the public health benefits of these exposure reductions.

The full report is available online, but I want to highlight a few key themes that are particularly relevant to current scientific and political debates.  Read More »

Also posted in Emerging testing methods, Health science, TSCA reform / Tagged , | Comments are closed

Better late than never: EPA finally takes first step to collect safety data on fracking chemicals

By / Published: May 9, 2014

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

Nearly two-and-a-half years after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency  partially granted a petition filed under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) by EDF, Earthjustice, and 114 other groups calling for a rulemaking to require companies that make or process chemicals used in oil and gas production, the agency finally responded today.

This morning EPA issued what’s known as an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) seeking public input on “the information that should be reported or disclosed for hydraulic fracturing chemical substances and mixtures and the mechanism for obtaining this information.” A 90-day comment period will start once the notice is published in the Federal Register next week.

What Today’s Announcement Means

The process that begins with today’s announcement is directed to manufacturers and processors of fracking chemicals and would call on them to report to EPA health- and safety-related data they have on those chemicals. Notably, it would apply not only to the presently undisclosed chemicals used in these operations, but also to hundreds of substances whose use in fracking is already widely reported, but for which little or no health or environmental safety data are available.

This effort is distinct from others aimed at drilling companies and well operators, which seek to reveal what materials are going down a well, but don’t indicate what their potential effects might be.

While much of the health and environmental effects data EPA would receive could become public and hence would complement and add valuable information to disclosure efforts, the main aim is to ensure EPA has information sufficient to understand the potential risks of the subject chemicals at an aggregate, national level.

It’s also worth noting that not all of the data reported to EPA would necessarily become available to the public; under the Toxic Substances Control Act, companies can claim certain information constitutes confidential business information, in which case EPA cannot disclose it to the public. That is, the agency would know but we would not.

A Long Road Ahead

This is only the first baby step toward initiating the rulemaking process EPA said it would undertake. EPA intends to use input it receives during the comment period to decide both how and what information should be reported.

The original petition asked the agency to require companies that make or process chemicals used in oil and gas production to: a) report basic production, processing and available health and safety information on those chemicals, and b) conduct testing to fill data gaps in the available information. In November, 2011, EPA granted the first part but denied the second, and limited the scope to just chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. EPA said it would issue the ANPRM, and begin a stakeholder process – both of which would be used to solicit input as to the scope of the reporting rules.

It’s unfortunate that this process has taken so long, as it addresses a critical need to ensure the safety of chemicals used in fracking. It will be essential that the public engage in the development of EPA’s reporting system to ensure it delivers the needed information to EPA and maximizes public access to that information.

   

Also posted in Regulation / Tagged | Comments are closed

New Draft of House Chemical Safety Bill Falls Short; EDF Calls on All Sides to Redouble Effort

By / Published: April 29, 2014

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

Release in response to today’s House Environment and Economy Subcommittee hearing on a revised discussion draft of the Chemicals in Commerce Act (CICA)

Today’s hearing makes clear that the discussion draft has made progress but still falls far short of legislation that will fix the fundamental flaws of the current law, according to Dr. Richard Denison, Lead Senior Scientist at Environmental Defense Fund. He urged all sides to keep the bipartisan process moving forward in both houses of Congress.

“While bipartisan discussions have yielded a number of substantial improvements to address serious concerns with the original draft, the most problematic provisions remain virtually untouched,” Denison said. “The goal now should be to keep the conversations going.”

Examples of progress include giving the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority to require testing where data are insufficient for prioritization purposes; incorporation of deadlines for agency action to assess and address risks of high-priority chemicals; and less prescriptive and onerous information quality and evaluation requirements.

Sections of the draft pose major concerns and fail to strike a fair and reasonable balance. Examples include the sweeping preemption of state authority for chemicals never subject to a thorough EPA safety review; overly broad allowances for companies to mask the identity of chemicals even long after market entry; and a failure to ensure that conditions placed on new chemicals apply to all companies making or using them.

“We’re optimistic that solutions are at hand that address the needs of all stakeholders, but it is going to take a redoubling of effort by all sides to get there,” he said.

 

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The perverting of prioritization: How a good idea for TSCA reform went bad – and how to save it

By / Published: April 22, 2014

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

For years, the concept of prioritization as an element of TSCA reform has enjoyed support from a broad array of stakeholders.  The number of chemicals in active commerce is large, if uncertain:  surely less than the 85,000 listed on the TSCA Inventory, but still in the tens of thousands. That sheer number demands that EPA develop and apply a process to decide where to start and how to sequence the enormous task of reviewing the safety of those chemicals. 

There has also been widespread agreement that EPA should make an initial pass using available information to identify three groups of chemicals:  a) those that present significant hazard or exposure potential or both; b) those for which existing information doesn’t raise such concerns; and c) those that need more information to determine their level of concern.

As conceived, prioritization was to be a low-stakes proposition for the various stakeholders, simply the means to get the new system up and running.  Prioritization decisions would not be final actions; rather, they were expressly designed to minimize dispute, and would be barred from legal challenge.  Chemicals identified as high priority and in need of immediate scrutiny would get a more thorough assessment before any decision as to whether they posed significant risk and required a regulatory response.  Chemicals identified as low-priority would be so designated provisionally based on less than a thorough assessment, and could be revisited if and when new information arose.  And chemicals lacking sufficient information to be prioritized would be subject to further data collection and generation, and then funneled back into the prioritization process.

These concepts are well-established both in the outcomes of industry-NGO negotiations and in heavily negotiated provisions of the more recent incarnations of the Safe Chemicals Act.

But then some folks got greedy.  Read More »

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Report: Staggering amounts of toxic chemicals produced across America

By / Published: April 15, 2014

Alissa Sasso is a Chemicals Policy Fellow.  Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist.

[Cross-posted from EDFVoices blog]

Recent spills in West Virginia and North Carolina cast a spotlight on toxic hazards in our midst. But as bad as they are, these acute incidents pale in scope compared to the chronic flow of hazardous chemicals coursing through our lives each day with little notice and minimal regulation. A new report by EDF, Toxics Across America, tallies billions of pounds of chemicals in the American marketplace that are known or strongly suspected to cause increasingly common disorders, including certain cancers, developmental disabilities, and infertility.

While it’s no secret that modern society consumes huge amounts of chemicals, many of them dangerous, it is surprisingly difficult to get a handle on the actual numbers. And under current law it’s harder still to find out where and how these substances are used, though we know enough to establish that a sizeable share of them end up in one form or another in the places where we live and work.

Our new report looks at 120 chemicals that have been identified by multiple federal, state and international officials as known or suspected health hazards. Using the latest, albeit limited, data collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, we identify which of these chemicals are in commerce in the U.S.; in what amounts they are being made; which companies are producing or importing them; where they are being produced or imported; and how they are being used. An interactive online map accompanying the report lets the user access the report’s data and search by chemical, by company, by state, and by site location.

Among our findings:  Read More »

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