Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a public meeting “to receive input and information to assist the Agency in its efforts to establish the scope of risk evaluations under development for the 10 chemical substances designated on December 19, 2016 for risk evaluations pursuant to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), as amended.” This is the first public meeting EPA has held under the new Administration to discuss implementing this important piece of legislation.
In response Liz Hitchcock, Legislative Director for Safer Chemicals Healthy Families released the following statement:
“In the D.C. policy world of alphabet soup agencies and chemicals regulation, it’s rare that a wide variety of constituencies willingly spends all of Valentine’s Day in a windowless conference room or on a webinar. The turnout at today’s meeting clearly demonstrates that the stakes are high for how well EPA does their job to protect American families from dangerous toxic chemicals like asbestos. EPA heard from Safer Chemicals Healthy Families partner groups from Alaska to Maine who made a strong case for EPA to dig deep into the the first ten chemicals it tackles under the new law. This is an important test for EPA in the new Administration. How well they protect the public from these chemicals will set the tone for EPA’s future chemicals work.
Our coalition looks forward to continued work with EPA as it moves forward on the first chemicals designated for action under the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act.”