EPA Initiatives under TSCA and other Relevant Laws
The EPA Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics is responsible for implementing the Toxics Use Reduction Act (TSCA) and overseeing chemicals policy efforts at the federal level. EPA has initiated numerous regulatory and voluntary efforts on chemical testing and assessment and pollution prevention. These include Chemical Right to Know, New Chemicals Review, and Pollution Prevention Programs.
Chemical Right to Know
The United States has a long history of promoting right to know. The 1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act established the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), a national, publicly-available inventory of emissions and waste generated from manufacturing facilities
In 1998, following studies on the lack of data on high production volume (HPV) chemicals, those used over one million pounds per year (about 500 metric tonnes), EPA initiated its Chemical Right to Know Initiative (EPA wrote a Data Availability Study which reported on knowledge about chemical toxicity). The goal of the Initiative is to better understand the hazards posed by HPVs; to improve reporting of persistent, bioaccumulative, or toxic substances (PBTs); and to facilitate public awareness of the dangers these chemicals may pose to children. Three programs were designed to address the goals of the Initiative: the HPV Challenge Program, the Voluntary Children’s Assistance Program, and PBT Chemical Reporting.
HPV Challenge
In 1998, the EPA entered into a voluntary “challenge” with the American Chemistry Council and the environmental advocacy group Environmental Defense for industry to provide basic screening level data. The HPV program allows companies the flexibility to test chemicals categorically based on the characteristics of a given substance as opposed to individual tests. To date, industry consortia have “adopted” almost 99% by tonnage of the HPV chemicals and produced summaries of toxicity data. However, there are about 500 “orphan” chemicals which have not been adopted by industry consortia and the program does not address chemicals that have achieved HPV status since 1998. The program does not cover the more than 6,000 chemicals currently used annually in cumulative quantities between 10,000 and 1,000,000 pounds (about 2 metric tonnes to 500).
Visit the HPV website.
The HPV program is EPA's only systematic system to review basic hazard data on such a large number of existing chemicals, but because it is voluntary, EPA is limited in its ability to ensure the full participation of industry or the timely submission of hazard information. In March of 2008 EPA published a first collection of documents on chemical risk-based prioritization for HPV chemicals. The documents are based on hazard and use information gathered through the HPV program and will inform future prioritization decisions. Where appropriate EPA can then initiate further voluntary or regulatory options for chemicals indicating a need for elevated concern.
Voluntary Children’s Chemical Evaluation Program
In 1998, the EPA asked producers of some 23 chemicals that have been documented in human tissues to voluntarily evaluate their products with regards to their risks children’s health. In 1999, 35 companies and consortia agreed to test 20 of these chemicals. EPA later redrafted the project as a pilot program in response to stakeholder concerns of excessive animal testing. As part of the voluntary testing, manufacturers are asked to write a “Data Needs Assessment” to communicate to EPA what, if any, information should be collected during the next phase of the program (there are three tiers of testing in the project corresponding to increasingly detailed tests). Information is then evaluated by a Peer Consultation Group of experts in toxicology and in evaluating exposure. EPA then determines whether an additional round (a higher tier) of voluntary testing in necessary.
Visit the Voluntary Children's Chemical Evaluation Program website.
PBT Chemical Reporting
The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is a database made publicly available to inform the public about the release of toxic chemicals reported annually to EPA by manufacturers and some federal facilities. TRI was established under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA) and expanded by the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990. Over the years, both the sectors required to submit TRI data and the number of substances inventoried have been expanded for a more comprehensive overview of community exposure. This expansion includes reducing TRI reporting thresholds for certain persistent bioaccumulative toxic (PBT) chemicals and adding certain other PBT chemicals to the TRI list of toxic chemicals.
Visit the Toxics Release Inventory website.
New Chemicals Review
The New Chemicals Program has taken shape as a product of Section 5 of TSCA. The program is designed to act as a “gatekeeper” to ascertain what additional data or restrictions, up to and including a ban of the substance, should accompany a chemical before it can be used commercially. Through the program a multidisciplinary team of scientists reviews new chemical Premanufacture Notifications (PMNs) for their completeness and to identify any potential unreasonable risks. Because of testing is not generally required for new chemicals, EPA has developed several tools to utilize data from Structure Activity Relationships (SARs). To implement the program and stimulate development of safer chemicals and chemical processes, EPA has initiated several programs.
Visit the New Chemicals Program website.
More about chemical assessment and design tools...
Pollution Prevention Framework
The Pollution Prevention Framework (P2 Framework) is a set of tools and processes for designing and evaluating new chemicals. The Framework promotes safer chemicals and processes within the beginning phases of chemical production. To do this, EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) uses a set of computer models to screen new chemicals for characteristics, properties, or relationships to other chemicals that may be an indication of toxicity to human or natural systems. While the framework is not meant to replace the need for important testing data, EPA designed the framework as a tool for industry to recognize potential problem substances before their manufacture.
The P2 framework models that OPPT has developed include a physical-chemical properties model; and environmental fate model; human health and environmental hazards models; and exposure and/or risk models.
The “PBT Profiler” is a free on-line tool for manufacturers to screen chemicals for PBT characteristics. The Profiler allows a substance to be tested for persistence in the environment, bioaccumulative potential, and aquatic toxicity based on its chemical structure. Since its release to the public in 2002, the profiler has been used to evaluate over an estimated 45,000 chemicals. This program, and other EPA computer models, allow companies to predict the environmental and public health risks associated with a chemical before it is commercially produced.
Visit the Pollution Prevention Framework website.
Sustainable Futures
Sustainable Futures is a voluntary pilot project initiated in 2002 that partners EPA with industry in designing safer chemicals. Sustainable Futures promotes pollution prevention in chemical design. By allowing the agency to work with businesses experienced in pollution prevention, or have shown their ability to work within the framework of pollution prevention programs the project is designed to provide important information on pollution prevention options in chemical design and processing. To qualify for this partnership, employees of participating firms must undergo training sessions to ensure their comprehension of the project, and the firm must show that principles of pollution prevention influence decision-making, in addition to providing examples of PMN notices that successfully used screening tools to assess chemical hazards and worker exposure. Participating businesses are rewarded for these efforts with expedited reviews of future PMNs, or some flexibility in the form which the PMN can be submitted.
Visit the Sustainable Futures website.
Pollution Prevention Programs
The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 elevated pollution prevention as the fundamental goal of the environmental protection efforts in the US. While the Act did not prescribe any particular agency actions, it has led to the establishment of a number of EPA voluntary research and outreach efforts. Pollution prevention represents an important and indirect route to chemicals management – production process redesign and product design change can result in a substantial reduction or substitution of problem materials. EPA’s efforts on pollution prevention have ranged from voluntary sector or use based initiatives to examine alternatives to problem substances, to procurement guidelines, to product labeling initiatives, to design challenges. EPA’s Pollution Prevention programs are divided into the following categories: green products and business practices, design for environment/green chemistry, and persistent and bioaccumulative toxics.
Visit the Pollution Prevention website.
Green Products and Business Practices
Product Labeling Initiatives
EPA’s Consumer Labeling Initiative is a voluntary effort to allow consumers greater environmental health information on product labels by encouraging industry, public interest and environmental groups, NGOs and trade associations to determine what information is necessary to protect consumer health. In addition, through this effort, EPA is currently working to implement the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) in regard to pesticides.
Visit the Consumer Labeling Initiavie website.
Green Engineering Program
The Green Engineering Program works to incorporate concepts of risk prevention into chemical processes and products developed by academia and industry. The program has drafted a textbook to be used by educators in teaching engineering principles and practices, has organized workshops to facilitate information sharing, and has developed computer software to help chemical engineers assess risks while in the process of product design. EPA maintains a green engineering website to make information available to students and educators, and conducts a series of national conferences with various chemical and engineering organizations.
Visit the Green Engineering Program website.
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing
EPA’s Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program aims to facilitate the executive offices’ procurement of products with a reduced effect on environmental health when compared to competing products. Specifically, the program targets government spending of $240 billion annually as purchasing power that EPA believes will minimize environmental degradation wherever possible.
Visit the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program website.
Hospitals for a Healthy Environment
Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E) is a joint project between EPA, the American Hospital Association, environmental health NGO Health Care Without Harm, and the American Nurses Association, which seeks ultimately to ensure that healthcare does not negatively impact health or the environment, and applies the principles of pollution prevention to the healthcare sector. H2E supplies documents and referrals to other organizations as tools to reduce the need for and use of hazardous chemicals in hospitals. Information on chemicals and pollution prevention are among the resource topics supplied by H2E— PBTs; chemicals used in fragrances that may be hazardous; substances used for analyses in laboratories; plastic softeners called phthalates; chemicals used for disinfection or sterilization; the dangers of pesticides in a hospital environment and suggestions for alternative pest control; steps to minimize the generation of hazardous waste and management tools; and information on pharmaceutical waste.
Visit the H2E website.
Design for Environment
The Design for Environment (DfE) program is a series of partnerships with industry to prevent chemical exposures through educated business decisions. As an overall program, DfE identifies a range of technologies, products, and processes that can be used to prevent pollution; evaluate and compare the risk, performance, and cost tradeoffs of the alternatives; encourage and enable use of subsequent information by providing mechanisms and incentives to institutionalize continuous environmental improvement; and distribute this information to the industrial community.
Visit the DfE website
A number of trade unions, universities, non-government organizations, government agencies, and dominant corporations including Dow Chemical, Exxon, and Proctor and Gamble have participated in DfE programs in the past. Most noteworthy of the programs, the Garment and Textile Care Partnership has seen a steady decline in perchloratehloroethylene use in the dry cleaning industry in the US since the program began in 1993, while sales of environmentally preferable cleaning machines has risen to over 400 machines sold since the program began— a market that was created by the demands of the partnership.
The ultimate goal in each DfE partnership is to “green the supply chain” and introduce environmentally friendly procedures and frameworks throughout a product’s lifecycle. DfE is comprised of separate projects that involve industry by sector.
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