"The EPA outlined new tools and technology it plans to use to review the risks of new chemicals, part of an effort to address criticism about slow assessments, lack of transparency, and deficient consideration of potential hazards.
The goal is to ensure new chemicals’ safety while allowing their innovations “to improve the cars we drive or the chips used in our computers, to create the newest iPhone, or unlock a green energy breakthrough to help solve the climate crisis,” Michal Ilana Freedhoff, EPA’s assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention, said Monday at a meeting of EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors, which is reviewing the agency’s proposed approach.
Industry groups allege the Environmental Protection Agency’s new chemicals program is too slow, inconsistent, and demanding. Environmental groups complain it isn’t transparent and doesn’t assure safety. The complaints have engulfed the agency since 2016 when Congress overhauled the program as part of its Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) amendments.
TSCA requires the agency to review new chemicals before they’re produced or imported. The amendments forced the EPA for the first time to make public decisions about the risks new chemicals pose."
Pat Rizzuto reports for Bloomberg Environment October 25, 2022.
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