Sept. 23 US: Chemical Industry Proposes Assessment Tool to EPA

From: Environmental Leader

The American Chemistry Council is seeking to inform the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory revisions with a proposed system for prioritizing chemical review and assessment.

The council says that the EPA lacks a “consistent, transparent process” for evaluating which chemicals need further evaluation, and that the agency risks wasting time and resources gathering information on chemicals that are already well understood or do not pose a health or environmental risk. ACC says its prioritization tool, drawn up in consultation with member companies, would allow the EPA to apply objective criteria to prioritize chemicals for further review.

The EPA recently released a new Chemical Data Reporting rule, which the agency said will require chemical manufacturers to report critical information more often and submit new and updated information related to potential exposures, current production volume, manufacturing site data, and processing and use data for more chemicals. The rule will take effect at the next reporting period, February 1, 2012 to June 30, 2012.

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