EPA Suspends Part Of Chemicals Program

EPA has suspended the part of its Chemical Assessment & Management Program (ChAMP) that prioritized commercial compounds for possible regulatory action. Under the program, chemicals were divided into three categories: low priority, for compounds not presenting significant issues warranting EPA action; medium priority, for substances of potential concern whose likely risk could be determined with more exposure or hazard data; and high priority, for chemicals that may need regulation or more risk data. The chemical industry supported the prioritization effort and is concerned about the action. "It is extremely disheartening that the Administration would abandon its priority-setting chemicals management process before it is even given the opportunity to work," says National Petrochemical & Refiners Association President Charles T. Drevna. But Richard Denison, senior scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, an activist group, says the move by the Obama Administration is an "implicit acknowledgment" that the ChAMP prioritization process needs an overhaul. The Administration is reviewing ChAMP as part of a larger evaluation of EPA's chemicals management efforts.