{"id":2561,"date":"2013-02-11T15:33:58","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T20:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/nanotechnology\/?p=2561"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:01:28","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:01:28","slug":"6-years-in-the-making-a-new-and-improved-snapshot-of-u-s-chemical-manufacture-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2013\/02\/11\/6-years-in-the-making-a-new-and-improved-snapshot-of-u-s-chemical-manufacture-2\/","title":{"rendered":"6 years in the making: A new and improved snapshot of U.S. chemical manufacture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D.<\/em>, <\/em>is a Senior Scientist.\u00a0\u00a0 Alissa Sasso<\/em> is a Chemicals Policy Fellow.<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s finally hit the street:\u00a0 Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released information on the manufacture and use of nearly 7,700 industrial chemicals in 2011.\u00a0 The data were collected last year under a revamped Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) program<\/a>, and is the first update of such information since way back in 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina and Star Wars Episode III<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In releasing the data, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson noted:\u00a0 \u201cThe CDR data also highlight the clear need for TSCA reform. Updating this critical law will ensure that EPA has access to the tools and resources it needs to quickly and effectively assess potentially harmful chemicals, and safeguard the health of families across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting even to this point has been a long and bumpy road<\/a>.\u00a0 Just getting from the proposed to a final CDR rule took over 16 months, with EPA having to endure not one but two nearly six-month regulatory reviews by the Office of Management and Budget and the chemical industry\u2019s efforts to delay and dilute the rule<\/a>.\u00a0 It then took another year for EPA to collect the data, in no small part thanks to repeated efforts by the chemical industry and its allies in Congress<\/a> to further delay the program.<\/p>\n

Finally, it\u2019s taken EPA six more months to compile and process the data in preparation for today\u2019s release \u2013 though that\u2019s a decided improvement over the 21 months it took EPA to release the data collected in the last cycle (the faster pace due in part to a requirement this time around for electronic reporting, a feature the chemical industry and its Congressional allies opposed<\/a>).<\/p>\n

So what do the new data reveal?\u00a0 EPA has provided some nice summary materials, which we won\u2019t duplicate here.\u00a0 See especially the table on this page<\/a>.\u00a0 We\u2019ll have more to say on this as we further analyze the data, but here are a few important things to note:<\/p>\n