“This report signifies that the public health threat posed by the unending stream of new chemicals entering the marketplace remains largely unabated,” Kyla Bennett, science policy director at the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), says in a statement. “We welcome EPA’s acceptance of the IG’s recommendations as a small first step forward in reforming EPA’s broken program to assess the safety of new chemicals entering the market.”
PEER is representing EPA scientists who claim that assessments were improperly changed in 2021 to reduce the risk posed by new chemicals. Four of the scientists were moved out of the EPA’s new chemicals division after they objected to making the changes. The EPA’s IG is still investigating the matter and is expected to report its finding later this year, according to PEER.
