Reforms Recommended For EPA Chemicals Program

EPA needs to make internal reforms to its program on regulation of commercial chemicals, the agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) says in a recent report. A major recommendation in the report is for EPA to beef up its enforcement of the Toxic Substances Control Act. EPA performed only 56 TSCA inspections in fiscal 2008, according to the report. This is far fewer than the hundreds of thousands of U.S. facilities impacted by the chemical control law, the report says, noting that there are no TSCA inspectors in Texas or Louisiana, home to numerous chemical manufacturing plants. Meanwhile, OIG criticizes EPA's handling of requests from chemical makers that certain data they provide to the agency be protected from public disclosure. The agency's process for handling these claims is "predisposed to protect industry information rather than to provide public access to health and safety studies," the report says. It also recommends that EPA establish a time limit for all confidentiality claims related to health and safety data. In a letter attached to the report, EPA Deputy Administrator Robert Perciasepe indicates the agency will put OIG's suggestions into practice.