EDF Health

Paint-lead hazard standard – A reconsideration

By Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative / Published: August 5, 2018

Tom Neltner, J.D., is Chemicals Policy Director

After 20 years working on lead poisoning prevention, it has become almost second nature for me to object when someone suggests that children eating paint chips is a significant route of exposure. All too often, the claim implies that the blame rests with parents who are not conscientious enough to clean or maintain their home or to properly care for their children. The implication is demeaning to the parents and distracts from the often – invisible lead dust hazards on floors that pose the greatest risk to children. So when I hear that idea, I quickly respond that dust is the key route of exposure.

However, a discussion with Hannah Chang at Earthjustice over my blog on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) July 2, 2018 proposed rule helped me realize that I was misguided with regards to defining the hazards of lead-based paints. She is the main attorney for the organizations that convinced a panel of judges in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to order the EPA to update its lead-based paint hazard standard.

Hannah Chang told me I missed the most compelling point when I pointed out in my previous blog that “EPA did not appear to have considered HUD’s 2007 American Healthy Housing Survey, which should provide a solid basis for identifying the relationship between lead in paint and lead in dust.”  She was right; my logic was too focused on dust as the primary source of exposure. Here is my reasoning; it may be helpful to those planning to submit comments to EPA by the August 16 deadline on the proposed rule.

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Posted in Health policy, Lead, Public health, Regulation / Tagged , , | Read 2 Responses

Families speak out on trichloroethylene exposure: It’s time for EPA to act

By Sam Lovell / Published: August 1, 2018

Samantha Lovell is a Project Specialist. Lindsay McCormick, is a Project Manager.

Today, families from across the country came to Washington, DC to tell lawmakers how the toxic chemical trichloroethylene (TCE) has impacted their lives.

TCE is a known human carcinogen that is toxic to the immune system and kidneys, and can cause fetal heart damage – among other harmful health effects.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed bans on high-risk uses of TCE under the newly reformed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) back in December 2016 and January 2017, but under this Administration, the agency has abandoned these bans.

TCE is also one of the first 10 chemicals slated for a broad risk review by EPA under TSCA.  Unfortunately, EPA plans to ignore the major exposures Americans face from TCE and other toxic chemicals released to our air, water and land – yet another sign that EPA is giving in to the chemical industry to the detriment of the public’s health.

In a moving press conference today led by Sen. Tom Udall, several families shared their stories in an effort to pressure EPA to finalize the bans and take other necessary steps to protect communities across the country from TCE. Read More »

Posted in Health policy / Tagged , , | Read 3 Responses

PART 1: EPA rams through its reckless review scheme for new chemicals under TSCA, your health be damned

By / Published: August 1, 2018

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

Part 1               Part 2               Part 3

Overruling the recommendations of its own longtime professional staff, political appointees at EPA have begun green-lighting new chemicals to enter commerce using an approach that shows contempt for the letter and intent of the 2016 reforms to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

EDF blogged recently about the new approach and how it drastically deviates from what the law requires.[pullquote]Now any company will be free to produce, import and use the chemical in any manner it chooses and without any obligation to inform EPA of its activities.[/pullquote]

Today EPA posted the first decision made under the new scheme:  It issued a “not likely to present an unreasonable risk” determination for a chemical that, according to its manufacturer International Flavors and Fragrances Inc., is to be imported for use “to reduce malodors.  It will be sold to industrial and commercial customers for their incorporation into industrial, commercial, and household consumer products such as floor cleaners, cat litters, fabric refresher sprays, Etc.”

The “not likely” finding means that International Flavors and Fragrances Inc. can commence manufacture and sale of the chemical, and will not be subject to any conditions or limits.  Once manufacture starts, the chemical will be placed on the TSCA Inventory, and that company or any other will be free to produce, import and use the chemical in any manner it chooses and without any obligation to inform EPA of its activities.   Read More »

Posted in Health policy, Regulation, TSCA reform / Tagged , , , | Comments are closed

Lead service line inventories – Indiana as a good model of a voluntary survey

By Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative / Published: July 31, 2018

Tom Neltner, Lindsay McCormick, and Audrey McIntosh

This blog is part of a series focused on how states are handling the essential task of developing inventories of lead service lines (LSLs) and making them public. The first blog identified 14 states that were taking on the issue: 4 with mandatory programs and 10 with voluntary. The second blog described programs in four states that mandate an inventory. In this blog, we highlight Indiana’s 2016 voluntary survey of utilities operating community water systems (CWSs) as a model because it ask utilities to: 1) identify who owns the line and provide the legal basis for that claim; and 2) rate its confidence in its estimates on a 1 to 10 scale. 

We found no other state survey asked about LSL ownership even though it is a central question in determining who is expected to pay for replacement. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) recommended[1] in 2015 that the agency require utilities to provide states this information as part of a revised Lead and Copper Rule (LCR). Unfortunately, 43% of the 781 CWS did not respond to Indiana’s survey, revealing a serious limitation of voluntary surveys.

In January 2016, a month before EPA encouraged states to develop an inventory of LSLs and make it available to the public, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) sent a two-page survey to utilities that operate CWSs in the state asking about drinking water service lines. The agency posted scanned PDF copies of the individual responses online but has not yet released a summary.[2]

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Posted in Drinking water, Health policy, Lead, Public health / Tagged , , , , , | Comments are closed

Mandatory lead service line inventories – Illinois and Michigan as strong models

By Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative / Published: July 30, 2018

Tom Neltner, J.D., Chemicals Policy Director and Lindsay McCormick, Project Manager

This blog is part of a series focused on how states are handling the essential task of developing inventories of lead service lines (LSLs) and making them public. The first blog identified 14 states that were taking on the issue: four with mandatory programs and ten with voluntary.  In this blog, we explore the four mandatory programs and highlight Illinois and Michigan as strong models for other states to consider.  Updated 11/3/18 to reflect updated estimates from Illinois.

Four states – California, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio – require utilities that operate community water systems (CWSs) to identify and report to the state in some form their number of lead service lines (LSLs). Illinois and Michigan both have strong approaches that could serve as models for other states and EPA to require nationally. California’s approach is seriously flawed because it ignores part of the service lines and can be misleading. Ohio requires utilities to either report they have zero LSLs or provide maps where the LSLs are likely to be found, with no requirement to provide an estimated number. We explore all of these approaches below.

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Posted in Drinking water, Health policy, Lead, Public health, Regulation / Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments are closed

Six Senators key to TSCA reform question EPA’s new chemical reviews in letter to Wheeler

By / Published: July 24, 2018

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

In a letter sent today to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler, six Senators who were instrumental to achieving the 2016 Lautenberg Act’s reforms to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) raised “serious concern” about further weakening changes EPA is poised to make in its review of new chemicals.

EDF had blogged about the changes last week.

The Senators’ letter includes a “request that your staff brief our offices about the planned changes prior to moving to implement them.”

The letter was signed by Senators Tom Udall, Tom Carper, Sheldon Whitehouse, Ed Markey, Cory Booker, and Jeff Merkley.

The Senators noted that “While in the months after passage EPA began to implement these provisions in a manner we believe was faithful to both the letter and spirit of the law, beginning in the middle of last year EPA signaled it would change course by narrowing the scope of its new chemical reviews and the requisite risk determinations in a manner that deviated from the statute.”

EDF has for many months raised concerns over the steady effort by Trump Administration political appointees at EPA to undermine the provisions of the Lautenberg Act intended to significantly enhance EPA reviews of new chemicals prior to allowing them onto the market.  The latest moves deviate even further from the requirements of the new law and threaten public and worker health.

EDF hopes that today’s letter will help convince EPA to return to a lawful, health-protective approach to conducting reviews of new chemicals under TSCA.

Posted in Health policy, TSCA reform / Tagged , , | Comments are closed