EPA announces plans to step up chemical regulation

The Environmental Protection Agency’s toxics chief says his agency has plans to dramatically ramp up regulation of toxic chemicals and could go as far as banning some existing chemicals that pose threats to human health.

Steve Owens said the EPA has plans to ban chemicals and other toxic substances under the existing Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The EPA hasn’t gone after a toxic chemical since it attempted regulating asbestos in 1991 when a federal court said it had overstepped its authority. Owens also said the EPA may expand rules, which currently only apply to new chemicals, to halt or limit the production of existing chemicals.

According to a story from InsideEPA.com:

Owens said officials are already in the process of developing a “list of chemicals that will be on our initial list of items that we want to address going forward.” The agency is also “coming up with strategies for using the authority we do have under [TSCA] to go as far as we think we can toward not only getting information and making information public but also taking steps to restrict and in some cases even banning substances that may be presenting unreasonable risk of harm to people in this country.”

In order to regulate a chemical, the EPA has to prove that it poses an “unreasonable risk” to human health or the environment.

The EPA recently announced that 104 chemicals may require regulation to keep them out of the drinking water supply, according to the New York Times. The agency is required to evaluate such chemicals every five years and this round was the longest list yet, including pesticides, commercial chemicals, disinfectant byproducts and pharmaceuticals. The list was formed after the EPA evaluated 7,500 contaminants.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson plans to detail the vision for the EPA’s plans for chemical regulation on Sept. 29 in a speech in San Francisco.