EDF Health

Unveiling EDF’s Chemical Exposure Action Map

By Maria Doa, PhD, Senior Director, Chemicals Policy and Paige Varner, PhD, Scientist, Healthy Communities / Published: February 22, 2024

U.S. map showing chemical facilities across the nationWhat’s New

Today, we are excited to introduce the Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) latest initiative—the Chemical Exposure Action Map. This tool is designed to spur the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to transform the assessment of risks posed by toxic chemicals in our communities.

Our map focuses on multiple high-priority chemicals—making visible the urgent and long-overdue need to assess the risks of chemicals together as they exist in the real-world. Unlike many current methods that look at risks one chemical at a time, our map offers a comprehensive view, highlighting the potential for cumulative risks from multiple high-priority chemicals.

Why It Matters

In a world where industrial facilities expose communities to multiple harmful chemicals daily, many have long called for a cumulative approach to assessing the risks from these chemicals. It is crucial that we wait no longer to reassess how we evaluate the health risks they pose.

Pregnant Latine woman gazing lovingly at young daughter who is hugging her belly.

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Also posted in Adverse health effects, Carcinogenic, Chemical exposure, Chemical regulation, Cumulative impact, Cumulative risk assessment, Developmental toxicity, Health hazards, Health policy, Public health, Regulation, Risk evaluation, TSCA, Vulnerable populations / Tagged , , , , , , | Authors: , / Comments are closed

EPA’s new chemical review process: A thought experiment

By Samantha Liskow / Published: December 21, 2023
Two metal gears meshing. The one on the top says "process." The one on the bottom says "optimization."

Note: This is the last in our 6-part series of blogs on EPA’s proposed changes to its new chemical review process. See below under Go Deeper for links to the other blogs in the series.

In our previous blogs in this multipart series, we have focused on some of the major changes we believe EPA needs to make in its review process for new chemicals—and how EPA could propose regulations to make those reviews safer.

In this post, we want to walk you through why EPA must set rules that protect us from all the ways that a chemical is likely to be used. Read More »

Also posted in Chemical regulation, Congress, Cumulative risk assessment, Risk evaluation, Rules/Regulations, TSCA / Authors: / Comments are closed

EPA’s new chemical regulations: Backtracking on PBTs

By Maria Doa, PhD, Senior Director, Chemicals Policy / Published: November 15, 2023

NOTE: This is the fifth in a series about EPA’s regulation of new chemicals. See below under Go Deeper for links to the other blogs in the series.

What Happened?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed new regulations for its safety reviews of new chemicals under our nation’s primary chemicals law, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). One of the proposed provisions would govern which persistent, bioaccumulative,1 toxic chemicals (PBTs) should undergo a full safety review.

Why It Matters

This proposed approach would exclude certain PBTs from a full new chemical safety review. This is a concerning step backward in addressing the risks from these chemicals.

PBT chemicals do not break down readily from natural processes and raise special concern because of their ability to build up in both the environment and in people and other organisms. Even small releases of these long-lived and bioaccumulative toxic chemicals can pose long-term risks to human health and the environment. Notable PBTs—such as DDT, which affects reproduction, and methyl mercury, which is a powerful neurotoxin—impacted whole ecosystems across the United States, including the Great Lakes.

View of Lake Michigan

View of Lake Michigan Photo credit: Maria Doa

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Also posted in Adverse health effects, Chemical exposure, Chemical regulation, Health hazards, Health policy, Neurotoxicity, PBTs, Regulation, Rules/Regulations, TSCA / Tagged , , , , , | Authors: / Comments are closed

New Chemicals Rule: EPA must require more info from industry

By EDF Blogs / Published: November 3, 2023

By Maria J. Doa, PhD, Senior Director, Chemicals Policy, and Greg Schweer, Consultant

NOTE: This is the third in a series about EPA’s regulation of new chemicals. See below under Go Deeper for links to other blogs in the series.

Chemical worker in hazmat suit and full-face respirator making new chemicals for industry.

What Happened?

EPA recently proposed regulations to govern how it reviews companies’ pre-manufacture notifications for new chemicals before those chemicals can go on the market.

Why It Matters

Industry often waits until late in the review process to submit information—which means that EPA may spend a significant amount of time and effort to revise its risk assessments to incorporate the new information.

EPA has a major opportunity to improve the New Chemicals Program as it crafts these revised regulations. Requiring industry to provide additional “known or reasonably ascertainable information” as required by the law is an important component of this rule. This should reduce the amount of assessment “rework” the agency currently conducts.

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Also posted in Chemical regulation, Industry influence / Tagged , , , | Authors: / Comments are closed

Now’s the Time—How EPA can use TSCA to turn off the PFAS tap

By Maria Doa, PhD, Senior Director, Chemicals Policy / Published: September 18, 2023

Faucet with the word PFAS flowing out of it

In the face of mounting evidence about the dangers posed by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), one thing is clear: EPA needs to take urgent action to turn off the tap of these “forever chemicals” that have long-term consequences for our health and the environment.

As we discussed in a previous blog, it is imperative that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) use the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to regulate PFAS chemicals comprehensively—both those newly entering the market and those that have been in circulation for decades.

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Also posted in Chemical exposure, Chemical regulation, Cumulative impact, Cumulative risk assessment, Drinking water, Emerging science, Health policy, PFAS, Public health, Regulation, Risk evaluation, TSCA, TSCA reform, Vulnerable populations, Worker safety / Tagged , , | Authors: / Read 2 Responses

New Approach Methodologies Should Adhere to TSCA Standards

By Susanne Brander, PhD, Senior Contributing Scientist / Published: August 15, 2023

What’s New?

EPA recently asked its Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC), comprised of experts in the fields of toxicology and environmental chemistry, to make recommendations on implementing new approach methods (NAMs) for testing the safety of new chemicals.

NAMs encompass a wide array of new evaluation strategies, including testing cell lines or invertebrates (rather than mammals); using computational approaches; and estimating potential harms of new chemicals by looking at existing toxicity data on similar substances.

Why It Matters

EPA announced in 2019 that it would be redirecting resources towards developing NAMs to replace those studies. The looming concern is the possibility that NAMs may miss effects that whole animal mammalian testing accounts for and generate false negatives — potentially allowing toxic chemicals to appear in consumer products or end up in our environment.

This could happen because relying only on NAMs or using data from one chemical to predict how a new one might behave opens the door to missing negative effects. NAMs could also cause evaluators to miss opportunities to use the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the nation’s primary chemical safety law, to limit toxic chemical exposures. Read More »

Also posted in Chemical regulation, Cumulative risk assessment, Emerging science, Emerging testing methods, Frontline communities, Health science, New approach methods (NAMs), Risk evaluation, TSCA / Tagged , , | Authors: / Comments are closed