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E.p.a. approved decade ago new files5/10/2023 EPA sought to embed within its TSCA chemicals policies OSHA’s longstanding industrial hygiene “ hierarchy of controls,” which prioritizes measures to eliminate or reduce the presence of a hazard in occupational settings – through measures such as substitution and use of less toxic chemicals and institution of engineering controls – over measures like personal protective equipment (PPE) that shift the burden of protection off of companies and onto the backs of workers. Not long ago, in 2015, EPA joined with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to advocate for policies that give strong preference to chemical management approaches that avoid or reduce hazard and promote inherent safety in the workplace. reliance on personal protective equipment for workers I think there’s this sense on the street that EPA is looking at these chemistries with the intent that we’re going to ban them all at the end of the day. This could involve notifications, process controls, volume management or labelling. There might be lots of ways to mitigate risk or manage risk. The head of the EPA toxics office recently stated: Even for high-risk uses of highly toxic chemicals, EPA is opting to apply regulatory band-aids that allow the industry to continue to make and use the chemicals in ways that continue to expose people and the environment. In the wake of the Trump EPA’s retreat from its proposed comprehensive ban of methylene chloride-based paint strippers that would have protected workers as well as consumers, EPA’s actions as well as its rhetoric have shifted to embrace “tools” other than bans. Even where a chemical is actually regulated under another law, the allowed releases still contribute to the chemical’s overall risk, which EPA is required to evaluate under TSCA. It is intent on ignoring exposures that ensue from environmental releases of chemicals to air, water and land, excluding them entirely from its risk evaluations based merely on the possibility that they could be addressed through a pollution control law that EPA administers. Sadly, the Trump EPA has sought to reverse progress in its implementation of TSCA. TSCA empowers EPA to stop pollution at its source, and there was renewed hope when TSCA was reformed in 2016 that it would be implemented in a manner that reduced the production and use of toxic chemicals, rather than continue to try to manage them through end-of-the-pipe controls. The Congress hereby declares it to be the national policy of the United States that pollution should be prevented or reduced at the source whenever feasible pollution that cannot be prevented should be recycled in an environmentally safe manner, whenever feasible pollution that cannot be prevented or recycled should be treated in an environmentally safe manner whenever feasible and disposal or other release into the environment should be employed only as a last resort and should be conducted in an environmentally safe manner. In passing the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990, Congress embraced policies and practices that reduce hazardous chemicals at the source as preferable to those that seek to manage their release: Several decades ago, the nation recognized the limitations of approaches that seek to manage chemical exposure through pollution controls and limits on releases. Protection of vulnerable subpopulations and environmental justice.In this post, I’ll briefly highlight five such policies and how this EPA is undermining them: EPA’s actions are threatening the health of American families.īut as I reflect on how implementation of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) has gone off the rails under the Trump EPA, even more disturbing than its individual actions are the methodical steps it is taking to dismantle decades of progress in our country’s chemicals policies. While the chemical industry may well have things to celebrate, it’s simply not the case for the rest of us: Comments from former top EPA officials, members of Congress, state and local governments, labor groups, firefighters, water utilities, public health groups, and a broad range of environmental groups make crystal clear that there’s nothing warranting celebration. Even more disturbing than its individual actions are the methodical steps the Trump EPA is taking to dismantle decades of progress in our country’s chemicals policies.
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