EDF Health

Selected tag(s): Risk assessment

Questionable risk decisions under ChAMP: Alkyl Nitriles Category

By / Published: April 23, 2009

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

By / Published: April 20, 2009

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

By / Published: April 16, 2009

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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Clump Change: Challenging conventional wisdom about nanoparticle aggregation

By / Published: December 5, 2008

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

In some nanotechnology circles, it is almost a mantra that, once released to the environment, nanoparticles will inevitably aggregate or agglomerate into larger masses and thereby lose their nanoscale-related properties and, by implication at least, any associated risks.

But can we count on nanoparticles released to the environment to self-regulate their own risk so conveniently? Read More »

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Shining a (partly shaded) light on nanomaterials that present “substantial risk”

By / Published: October 31, 2008

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

Section 8(e) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requires any company that manufactures, imports, processes or distributes chemicals in the U.S. to notify EPA within 30 days if it obtains new information that “reasonably supports the conclusion that such substance or mixture presents a substantial risk of injury to health or the environment.”  Are there Section 8(e) notices for nanomaterials? Read More »

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The Nano Risk Framework Gets Ready for Shanghai

By John Balbus / Published: October 2, 2008

John Balbus, M.D., M.P.H., is Chief Health Scientist.

At its most recent meeting a few weeks ago, the US Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to the International Standards Organization (ISO) Technical Committee on Nanotechnologies approved a motion to have ISO develop a Technical Report based on the EDF-Dupont Nano Risk Framework (NRF). Or to put it another way in acronym-laden Washington-speak, the US TAG to the ANSI-accredited ISO TC229 approved a TR based on the EDF-DD NRF. Read More »

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