EPA Unveils Chemical Screening Program

Over the next four years, EPA plans to evaluate thousands of industrial chemicals for their potential to damage human health and the environment, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson told more than 300 environmental, health, and chemical industry regulatory officials attending the Global Chemical Regulation Conference in Baltimore last week. Under the Chemical Assessment & Management Program, or ChAMP, the agency has until 2012 to complete risk characterizations for, and possibly regulate, more than 6,750 chemicals produced or imported into the U.S. in quantities greater than 25,000 lb per year. In August 2007, the U.S., Canada, and Mexico agreed to devise a North American framework for assessing and managing the potential risks of chemicals in broad commercial use. Johnson said the cooperative effort would provide "a more productive, focused, and strategic" system for chemical regulation than the European Union's REACH program, which will require the registration of more than 30,000 chemicals within 11 years. He said EPA would also review and update an inventory of health and environmental risk data it maintains on more than 83,000 chemicals because many of the substances are no longer produced in or imported into the U.S.