{"id":1802,"date":"2012-04-13T09:01:40","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T14:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/nanotechnology\/?p=1802"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:01:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:01:21","slug":"striking-the-right-balance-between-right-to-know-and-right-to-intellectual-property-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2012\/04\/13\/striking-the-right-balance-between-right-to-know-and-right-to-intellectual-property-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"Striking the right balance between right to know and right to intellectual property protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D.<\/em>, is a Senior Scientist.<\/em><\/p>\n

There is clearly a need to balance the legitimate claims of companies to protect certain confidential business information (CBI) from public disclosure with the legitimate need for the market, consumers and the public to have access to information they need to make sound decisions about chemicals that are in commerce.\u00a0 Unfortunately, most of TSCA\u2019s provisions and their implementation by EPA have skewed this balance radically in the direction of denying the public\u2019s right to know and creating an ill-informed chemicals marketplace.<\/p>\n

The core problem is two-fold, constituting a vicious circle<\/a>:\u00a0 Too many CBI claims are made, and each of the infrequent examinations of such claims done by EPA has found a large fraction to be illegitimate, i.e., not meeting the well-established criteria for what constitutes a legitimate trade secret.\u00a0 And because of the large number of claims made, EPA has lost the ability to review claims to ensure they are in fact legitimate and remain so over time; this lack of review has led directly to more claims being made, thereby completing the vicious circle.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Under TSCA companies are free \u2013 literally, at no cost \u2013 to claim any information they submit to EPA to be CBI, often without providing any justification, thereby denying access to the public and even to state and local governments.\u00a0 Even the identities of chemicals that are the subject of health and safety studies \u2013 which TSCA expressly forbids from being claimed CBI except in very limited circumstances \u2013 have been routinely masked under policies in place at EPA until recently<\/a>.\u00a0 CBI claims remain in place until and unless challenged by EPA, yet EPA is not required to review the claims, and they never expire.<\/p>\n

The Safe Chemicals Act of 2011<\/a> (S. 847<\/a>), would go far to restore the right balance.\u00a0 All CBI claims would have to be justified up front.\u00a0 EPA would be required to review them, and only approved claims would stand.\u00a0 Approved claims would expire after no more than five years, except for types of claims for which EPA determines the five-year term would not apply.\u00a0 Other levels of government would have access to CBI.<\/p>\n

Many in industry have acknowledged the need for substantial reform of TSCA\u2019s policies toward information disclosure.\u00a0 There is widespread agreement, for example, on the need for up-front substantiation both to reduce the number of claims asserted and better ensure the legitimacy of those claims that are made.\u00a0 And some in industry have been receptive to the concept of a fee to cover the costs of EPA review of CBI claims, which also could help to reduce the number of claims.<\/p>\n

One key to striking the right balance is to recognize that it is often information that links a specific chemical to a specific company or product that is most sensitive.\u00a0 Many disclosures, for example of a health and safety study on a chemical, which in my view is information for which the public has a right to know, can be done in a manner that does not disclose such linkages and hence avoids or lessens the concern.<\/p>\n

The most difficult area is with new chemicals, where companies understandably have a greater need to protect the identity of the chemicals in which they\u2019ve invested.\u00a0 Here, I think a viable approach may be to provide a time-limited allowance for some types of protections on information concerning new chemicals, but with clear exceptions made for such chemicals where a potential hazard has been identified.<\/p>\n

One specific improvement to S. 847 would be to amend the provision limiting CBI claims to a single five- year period, to allow such claims to be extended upon a showing by the claimant that the conditions for granting CBI status in the first place remain.\u00a0 Another would be to specify up front certain types of information that are always eligible for CBI protection, such as a company\u2019s list of customers or detailed information about the precise process it uses to make a chemical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist. There is clearly a need to balance the legitimate claims of companies to protect certain confidential business information (CBI) from public disclosure with the legitimate need for the market, consumers and the public to have access to information they need to make sound decisions about chemicals that are …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,56096,114108],"tags":[39152,39155,68,39595],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy","category-omboira","category-tsca","tag-chemical-identity","tag-cbi","tag-epa","tag-safe-chemicals-acts"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12652,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802\/revisions\/12652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1802"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}