{"id":7313,"date":"2017-12-20T13:57:36","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T18:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/?p=7313"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:02:04","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:02:04","slug":"systematic-slowdown-epa-indefinitely-delays-virtually-all-proposed-actions-to-restrict-chemicals-under-tsca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2017\/12\/20\/systematic-slowdown-epa-indefinitely-delays-virtually-all-proposed-actions-to-restrict-chemicals-under-tsca\/","title":{"rendered":"Systematic slowdown: EPA indefinitely delays virtually all proposed actions to restrict chemicals under TSCA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D.,\u00a0<\/em>is a Lead Senior Scientist.\u00a0 My colleague Ryan O\u2019Connell assisted in the research described in this post.<\/p>\n

By the time the long-awaited reforms of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) passed in June of 2016, nearly all stakeholders had come to agree that we needed a stronger federal chemical safety system, one that gave EPA more authority and more resources to act.\u00a0 Only through this could public confidence in the system begin to be restored \u2013 to the benefit of both business and public health.<\/p>\n

That was then.\u00a0 A scant 18 months later, the law is being implemented by an Administration hell-bent on rolling back existing or indefinitely delaying new health protections, even those called for by large bipartisan majorities in Congress.\u00a0 And the chemical industry?\u00a0 So much for the influence of its better angels who supported reform.\u00a0 It\u2019s now going for broke, grabbing what it can while it can.[pullquote]Virtually every proposed action that would impose restrictions or conditions on specific chemicals has been either moved to the \u201clong-term action\u201d attic or simply deleted altogether.<\/strong><\/em>[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n

Yesterday, the New York Times<\/em><\/a> and The Intercept<\/em><\/a> ran stories spotlighting EPA\u2019s decision to back-burner proposed restrictions on high-risk uses of three highly toxic chemicals \u2013 trichloroethylene (TCE)<\/a>, methylene chloride (MC)<\/a>, and N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP)<\/a> \u2013 relegating them to the bureaucratic dustbin of \u201clong-term actions.\u201d\u00a0 Not coincidentally, the chemical industry has strongly opposed all of the proposed restrictions.<\/p>\n

But those aren\u2019t the only proposed actions on chemicals for which this EPA has applied the brakes.\u00a0 An examination of EPA\u2019s two most recent semi-annual \u201cunified agendas<\/a>\u201d \u2013 that trumpeted by the President last week, and the preceding one issued this past April \u2013 reveals a much broader and more disturbing pattern: \u00a0Virtually every proposed action that would impose restrictions or conditions on specific chemicals has been either moved to the \u201clong-term action\u201d attic or simply deleted altogether. <\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Actions called for under the new TSCA that merely entail putting new processes in place and initiating reviews of chemicals have by and large gone forward and met applicable statutory deadlines.\u00a0 The so-called \u201cframework\u201d rules that establish the processes by which EPA will identify, prioritize and assess chemicals came out roughly on schedule \u2013 though highly flawed and heavily tilted toward industry interests<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Forward motion is also preserved on a few chemical-specific actions mandated by the new law and subject to deadlines.\u00a0 For example, a mandated rule establishing reporting requirements for the TSCA mercury inventory, and mandated reconsideration of EPA standards defining who qualifies to be a small manufacturer or processor, both remain under active status.<\/p>\n

But then there are the proposed actions that would impose restrictions or conditions on specific chemicals. \u00a0Together with the proposed bans on TCE, MC and NMP I\u2019ve already mentioned, over the past eight months, six actions EPA had proposed to use its authorities under the core provisions of TSCA (Title I) that Congress amended last year have either been shifted to \u201clong-term action\u201d status or removed altogether:<\/p>\n

Shifted to long-term action:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n