Water Conservation, Water Efficiency, Water Quality, Water Management: TOXIC SUBSTANCE CONTROL RECORDS BECOME PUBLIC INFORMATION

Sunday, March 21, 2010

TOXIC SUBSTANCE CONTROL RECORDS BECOME PUBLIC INFORMATION

This is very big news!! For the first time since the creation of the EPA's Toxic Substance Control Act, these once secret records are now available for public viewing. Below is the EPA press release I received on March 15th. My apologies for the delay in posting this information. It has been a very busy week in AquaPro World. Please take advantage of the opportunity to educate yourself on what manufacturers have until now been able to keep out of the public domain. Some 84,000 chemicals can now be reviewed. There are still over 17,000 chemicals that remain unreleased in the EPA list due to manufacturers "proprietary information". But this is a huge step in the right direction for the public's right to know.

Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 2:06 PM
Subject: EPA News Release (HQ): EPA Makes Chemical Information More
Accessible to Public

CONTACT:
Dale Kemery
kemery.dale@epa.gov
202-564-7839
202-564-4455

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 15, 2010

EPA Makes Chemical Information More Accessible to Public
For the first time, TSCA chemical inventory free of charge online

WASHINGTON - As part of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson's strong
commitment to increase information on chemicals, for the first time, EPA
is providing web access, free of charge, to the Toxic Substances Control
Act (TSCA) Chemical Substance Inventory. This inventory contains a
consolidated list of thousands of industrial chemicals maintained by the
agency. EPA is also making this information available on Data.Gov, a
website developed by the Obama Administration to provide public access
to important government information. This action represents another
step to increase the transparency of chemical information while
continuing to push for legislative reform of the 30 year old TSCA law.

"Increasing the public's access to information on chemicals is one of
Administrator Jackson's top priorities," said Steve Owens, assistant
administrator for EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic
Substances. "The American people are entitled to easily accessible
information on chemicals, and today's action is part of a series of
ongoing steps that EPA is taking to empower the public with this
important information."

Until now, the consolidated public portion of the TSCA Inventory has
only been available by purchase from the National Technical Reports
Library or other databases. By adding the consolidated TSCA Inventory
to the Agency's website and to Data.Gov, EPA is making this information
readily available to the public at no cost.

Currently, there are more than 84,000 chemicals manufactured, used, or
imported in the U.S. listed on the TSCA Inventory. However, EPA is
unable to publicly identify nearly 17,000 of these chemicals because the
chemicals have been claimed as confidential business information under
TSCA by the manufacturers. Under Administrator Jackson's leadership,
EPA has already begun a series of aggressive steps to provide greater
transparency on chemical risk information, including an announcement in
January that signaled EPA's intent to reduce a certain type of
confidentiality claim, or Confidential Business Information (CBI) claim,
on the identity of chemicals

In the coming months, EPA will take further steps to increase
transparency and make more information available to the public,
including adding TSCA facility information, and the list of chemicals
manufactured to the Facility Registry System (FRS). FRS is an integrated
database that provides the public with easier access to EPA's
environmental information and better tools for cross-media environmental
analysis. The addition of TSCA facility and chemical databases to FRS
will provide the public with information on the facilities in their
communities using industrial chemicals.

For information about EPA's increasing transparency on chemical risk
information see
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/bd4379a92ceceeac8525735900400c2
7/631cf22eb540c4db852576b2004eca47!OpenDocument
[or http://tinyurl.com/yhegw6l ]
For access to the entire TSCA Inventory, please visit
http://www.epa.gov/oppt/newchems/pubs/invntory.htm

AP