EDF Health

Selected tag(s): EPA

Industry is scapegoating EPA for new chemical review delays

By Maria Doa, PhD, Senior Director, Chemicals Policy / Published: October 17, 2023

What’s Happening?

The chemical industry has an extensive—and ongoing—history of complaining about how long it takes EPA to do new chemical safety reviews.

The irony is that industry is the very player causing the delays in EPA’s review process. Clear data indicate that chemical manufacturers are primarily responsible for the length of EPA’s reviews and the backlog of cases.

Illustration of a goat looking anxious as 6 fingers point at it from outside the frame

Why It Matters

One of EPA’s vital roles is to assess the safety of new chemicals before they enter the market.

Industry’s outcry about a backlog serves as a smokescreen to pressure EPA into swiftly approving new chemicals even when they may not be safe. This would put us all at risk, particularly those who are more susceptible or maybe more highly exposed, such as children, pregnant people, and people who live and work in fenceline communities.

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Posted in Chemical regulation, Industry influence / Also tagged , , , | Authors: / Comments are closed

EPA: Now’s your chance to get foxes out of the henhouse

By Samantha Liskow / Published: October 10, 2023

Rooster facing fox on a black background

NOTE: This is the second in a series about EPA’s regulation of new chemicals.

What Happened?

EPA recently proposed new regulations for its safety reviews of new chemicals under our nation’s main chemicals law, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). With this action, the agency has a big chance to solve major problems that have undermined scientific integrity, transparency, and public confidence in EPA’s ability to ensure the safety of new chemicals. Unfortunately, the proposed regulation that EPA put out for comment this year falls far short of this goal.

EDF has joined with other organizations, including AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Resources Defense Council, in a letter urging EPA to make fundamental changes (PDF, 178KB) to these proposed regulations. One of the most important is this: the agency should end its longstanding practice of sharing about the risks of new chemicals with only the companies that make them—and allowing those companies to dispute the results.

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Posted in Chemical regulation, Industry influence, TSCA / Also tagged , , , , | Authors: / Read 1 Response

Time for a new age for new chemicals

By EDF Blogs / Published: September 20, 2023

By Maria Doa, PhD, Senior Director, Chemicals Policy, Samantha Liskow, Senior Counsel, and Colin Parts, Legal Fellow

NOTE: This is the first of a series about EPA’s regulation of new chemicals.

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

Unfortunately, as we noted in our comments to EPA [PDF, 721KB], the proposal falls significantly short of implementing the fundamental changes needed to ensure the safety of any new chemicals allowed onto the market.

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

EPA’s approach to 1,4-dioxane falls short of protecting fenceline communities

By Maria Doa, PhD, Senior Director, Chemicals Policy and Paige Varner, PhD, Scientist, Healthy Communities / Published: September 14, 2023

Clear water pouring from a pitcher into a glass.What’s New?

Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) embarked on a critical Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) supplemental risk evaluation of 1,4-dioxane [PDF, 8.7MB]– a highly carcinogenic chemical that contaminates drinking water supplies across the country and is present in products, such as cleaning supplies and personal care products.

This draft supplemental risk evaluation represents a significant step forward because it addresses many of the omissions from the original 1,4-dioxane risk evaluation. Unfortunately, as we noted in our comments to EPA, a closer examination reveals several shortcomings in how EPA addresses risks to fenceline communities—people living, playing, and working near industrial facilities that release toxic chemicals into the air and water. Read More »

Posted in Chemical exposure, Chemical regulation, Cumulative impact, Cumulative risk assessment, TSCA / Also tagged , | Authors: , / Read 1 Response

New guidelines to inform EPA’s approach to cumulative risk

By Paige Varner, PhD, Scientist, Healthy Communities / Published: September 12, 2023

What’s New?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released and solicited public comments on its draft Cumulative Risk Assessment (CRA) Guidelines for Planning and Problem Formulation. The purpose of a CRA is to determine the combined health and/or environmental risks from multiple stressors and chemicals that can cause the same harms. These guidelines, intended to be applied to all of EPA’s programs and regions, describe how the agency will determine when to use CRAs and the steps it will take to plan them.

Why It Matters

Currently, many EPA programs assess the health and environmental risks of single chemicals, without considering the multiple chemicals that cause the same harms and non-chemical stressors we are exposed to every day. Assessing risks cumulatively, and making regulatory decisions based on this, represents real-world exposures more accurately than single-chemical stressor risk assessments. Read More »

Posted in Chemical exposure, Cumulative impact, Cumulative risk assessment, Health policy, Public health, TSCA, Vulnerable populations / Also tagged , | Authors: / Comments are closed