Washington, DC — In an erosion of public health protection, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stopped reviewing chemical hazard and exposure data to set priorities for testing and risk assessments, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). This retreat leaves the country significantly less prepared to address emerging chemical threats.

The Toxic Substances Control Act requires that an EPA-led Interagency Testing Committee (ITC) update the list of priority chemicals for testing every six months. The ITC consists of ten agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and the National Cancer Institute, as well as four liaison partners, including the Department of Defense. The ITC is supposed to review the available data on toxic substances and recommend priorities for exposure and toxicity testing.

Despite the statutorily mandated six-month schedule of updates, EPA has not hosted a single ITC meeting during the past two years. This deterioration of duties has accelerated, as EPA first stopped editing the priority list mandated by the statute; then stopped publishing a report of its meetings; next, the agency stopped meeting twice a year, and then stopped meeting entirely.

“This hazard and exposure data are key in helping the government identify, prioritize, and assess potential risks to human health and the environment,” said PEER Science Policy Director Kyla Bennett, a scientist and attorney formerly with EPA. Dr. Bennett notes that every year, industry introduces roughly 2,000 new chemicals for commercial use. “This process is supposed to function as an advanced warning system, but EPA is abandoning its role in protecting human health.”

This diminution of EPA scientific oversight is taking place as the chemical industry also seeks to weaken the agency’s regulatory oversight. The Trump administration has –

• Returned officials from the American Chemical Council to head EPA’s programs for reviewing the safety of new and existing chemicals;
• Acted to remove hundreds of chemists, toxicologists, and other specialists from EPA’s ranks; and
• Removed EPA’s Inspector General shortly after he released a series of reports finding that the agency had retaliated against EPA scientists for raising concerns about the watering down of new chemical risk assessments.

“The safety net shielding the public and workers from harmful chemical exposures is steadily being shredded under intense political pressure,” Bennett added, pointing out that the 2016 chemical reviews added by Congress in 2016 to the Toxic Substances Control Act is the last major environmental law enacted in the U.S. “Rather than stepping up to shoulder these new public health responsibilities at this pivotal time, EPA’s chemical oversight is dissolving.”

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Read the statutory direction on the ITC 

Look at the gap in required biannual reports

See how the Interagency Testing Committee works

Examine the chemical prioritization process

Revisit EPA scientists’ complaints on altered risk assessments