E.P.A. Removes Confidentiality Claims for In excess of 150 Chemicals / Part of continuing effort to protect Americans’ health by increasing access to chemical information

WASHINGTON - In order to ensure the public has as much information as possible about the health and the environmental impacts of chemicals, the E.P.A. has made public the identities of in excess of 150 chemicals contained in 104 health and safety studies that had been claimed confidential by industry. Today's announcement is another in a series of unprecedented actions that E.P.A. is taking to provide the public with greater access to information on the chemicals that are manufactured and used in the United States.

For these 104 studies, the chemical identity will no longer be redacted, or kept from view. The chemicals involved are used in dispersant formulations and consumer products such as air fresheners, non-stick and stain resistant materials, fire resistant materials, nonylphenol compounds, perfluorinated compounds, and lead.

"This action to disclose the identity of in excess of 150 chemicals is an important step in EPA's commitment to give the American people access to critical information about chemicals that their children and families may be exposed to," said Steve Owens, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. "A health and safety study with the chemical name kept secret is completely useless to the public."

In 2010, E.P.A. challenged industry to voluntarily declassify unwarranted claims of confidential business information (CBI). The agency also issued new guidance outlining projects to deny confidentiality claims for chemical identity in health and safety studies under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Based on this guidance, E.P.A. notified a number of companies in February 2011 that the agency had determined that their CBI claim was not eligible for confidential treatment under TSCA and that E.P.A. intended to make the information public.

The health and safety studies include some declassified by the agency and other voluntary declassifications by companies in response to EPA's challenge. E.P.A. is committed to posting new declassified materials under TSCA on the agency website on a regular basis.

In addition to these actions, E.P.A. over the past several months has taken a number of other steps to make chemical information more readily available. The agency has provided the public, for the 1st time ever, with free access to the consolidated TSCA Inventory on the E.P.A. and Data.Gov websites. E.P.A. also launched a new chemical data access tool that for the 1st time gives the public the ability to electronically search EPA's database of in excess of 10,000 health and safety documents on a wide range of chemicals that they may come in contact with every day. E.P.A. will continue to take actions to increase the public's access to chemical information.

More information: http://www.epa.gov/oppt/existingchemicals/pubs/transparency.html

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