EPA Regains Control over Chemical Assessments

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today [1] that it would take back the reins of its program for assessing the risks of industrial chemicals after the process had become corrupted by political forces.

EPA is streamlining the process for evaluating and listing chemicals under its Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). A memo from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says, “While still robust, the assessment development process will be shortened to 23 months, speeding the availability of IRIS assessments to the risk assessor community and the public and providing for more timely action to protect public health.”

To shorten the process, EPA is limiting the role of other federal agencies, including White House offices. EPA made major changes [2] to the IRIS process in April 2008 when it granted other agencies several opportunities to review draft assessments and make changes or submit new data. Largely political offices in the White House, as well as the Department of Defense, a major user of hazardous chemicals, could delay or interfere [3] with IRIS assessments on non-scientific grounds.

The new process announced today maintains a role for the White House and other agencies but allows EPA to keep the ball in its own court. EPA manages the review process by setting deadlines for comments (45 days) and maintaining editorial control. EPA also says that comments on draft assessments should focus solely on science.

If other agencies are able to interfere in an assessment, the public will find out. EPA is requiring that all written comments on draft assessments become part of the public record.

While OMB Watch had called [4]for a prohibition on White House review of purely scientific material, EPA’s new process seems like a reasonable compromise. Still, we’ll all need to keep a vigilant eye on the progress of the IRIS program from this point forward.

Most importantly, EPA plans to trim the length of the typical assessment to about 23 months (a lightning-quick pace, since the old agency review process in and of itself could take years). A faster assessment process will provide the public and decision makers with timely information on health hazards, allowing consumers to better avoid dangerous products and prompting regulators to intervene. In recent years, EPA had only been completing about two assessments per year. Jennifer Sass, a Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, says it best [5]:

I hope that this new process will lead to more IRIS assessments being finalized each year, and more assessments of the most hazardous and most widespread chemical contaminants. These are the ones that we really need to target with solid science and health-protective policies, if we are to improve health where people live, work, and play!