EPA proposes a sensible approach to identifying chemicals of concern

 By Joe Sullivan (Flickr) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

...the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held stakeholder meetings to get public input into the criteria it will use to identify additional chemicals of concern beyond the 11 chemicals or chemical classes it has already identified.  EPA used these meetings (as well as an online forum open until September 14) as an opportunity for the public to respond to a “discussion guide” it issued in August that sets forth draft criteria and identifies data sources it intends to use to look for chemicals that meet the criteria...

...Of the more than 60,000 chemicals on the market at the time TSCA was adopted in 1976, fewer than two percent have received any substantive, data-informed review.  So it is a welcome development that EPA is actually looking at chemicals in commerce – despite the lack of a mandate to do so under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) – and, for those posing concerns, initiating at least those limited actions allowed by TSCA.

For the chemicals of concern EPA identifies, it expects to develop “chemical action plans” similar to those it has developed for the first 11 noted above.  These plans identify “a range of actions … from voluntary phase-outs and alternatives assessments in cooperation with industry and other stakeholders, to the development of test rules to require the development of additional data under section 4 of TSCA, to controls or use restrictions under sections 5 or 6 of TSCA.”

Read more at the Environmental Defense Fund