E.P.A. Delivers Formerly Confidential Chemical Information

WASHINGTON - As part of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson's commitment to enhance the E.P.A.'s chemicals management plan and increase transparency, the agency is making accessible to the public hundreds of studies on chemicals that had been treated as confidential business information (CBI). The move is part of EPA's project to make public the chemicals that are not entitled to CBI status. Releasing the data will expand the public's access to critical health and safety information on chemicals that are manufactured and processed in the U.S. Newly accessible information can be found using EPA's Chemical Data Access Tool.

"EPA is increasing the availability of critical health and safety studies on chemicals that children and families are exposed to every day. We are making important progress in making this information public and giving the American public easy access to it," said Steve Owens, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. "Over the next year, we expect to review several thousand additional studies on industrial chemicals and make many of these more accessible to the public."

Since 2009, 577 formerly confidential chemical identities are no longer confidential and in excess of 1,000 health and safety studies are now accessible to the public that were previously unavailable or only accessible in limited circumstances. In 2010 E.P.A. issued new guidance outlining the agency's projects to deny confidentiality claims for chemical identities in health and safety studies under the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that are determined to not be entitled to CBI status. E.P.A. has been reviewing CBI claims in new and existing TSCA filings containing health and safety studies.

Consistent with the guidance, the agency will request that the submitter voluntarily relinquish the CBI claims and make the newly accessible studies accessible to the public. E.P.A. also challenged the chemical industry to make accessible information that was previously classified as CBI. To date, in excess of 35 companies have agreed to review previously submitted filings containing health and safety studies and determine if any CBI claims may no longer be necessary. The newly accessible information can be found under a new "declassified tab" using the Chemical Data Access Tool, launched in December 2010 to assist the public in retrieving chemical health and safety information submitted to E.P.A. under TSCA.

For additional information, please visit: http://www.epa.gov/oppt/existingchemicals/pubs/transparency.html

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