On March 18th, Earthjustice and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) filed a joint lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to comply with the updated Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). It turns out the EPA has been concealing information from the public and assisting chemical companies in the process.
This act governs the manufacturing, use, and distribution of chemicals. The TSCA was updated by Congress in 2016 to protect Americans from harmful chemicals like asbestos. The revisions included new rules the EPA must follow, including transparency of their reviews of every new chemical before manufacturing can occur.
Earthjustice attorney Tosh Sagar explains the updated TSCA:
Congress reformed TSCA just a few years ago to protect people’s health from new chemicals. It said, unequivocally, that the public has a right to know about these chemicals before they are put out on the market. Trump’s EPA instead hides health and safety studies and other key information, just so that industry can have it easier. Ignoring TSCA’s transparency requirements makes it more likely that dangerous chemicals are reaching our homes and workplaces.
Earthjustice and EDF reviewed more than 200 new chemical applications that were dated from August 2016 to April 2019. The results of the investigation showed:
- The EPA doesn’t alert the public when a new chemical is under review, which is required by law
- For approximately one in every six applications, no notices were published until after a chemical was approved.
- The EPA allows companies to conceal information about chemicals under review.
- The EPA is allowing companies to claim health studies are confidential when they are required to release this information to the public.
- The EPA is not auditing chemical companies’ confidential business information (CBI) claims to determine if they’re warranted.
Health and environmental organizations represented by Earthjustice are suing Trump’s EPA for repeatedly ignoring transparency rules and concealing documents, which prevents the public from having any say in these new chemicals before they can be produced.
Common Dreams reported that “just last year Trump’s EPA approved without restrictions and while hiding all studies, a new PFAS, a member of a class of nearly indestructible chemicals linked to birth defects, infertility, and cancer.” This is just one example among hundreds of chemicals they pushed through without prior approval.
The coalition who’s suing the EPA said:
Unleashing chemicals into the market without proper vetting is like opening Pandora’s box, [the] EPA must stop hiding key information about the chemicals it is reviewing and put public health above the desires of the chemical industry.
Earthjustice has filed the lawsuit on behalf of EDF, Environmental Health Strategy Center, Natural Resources Defense Council, Center for Environmental Health, and the Sierra Club. The group threatened to sue the EPA in September of last year but gave them time to comply.
Investigators added:
WHEN IT COMES TO TOXIC CHEMICALS AND TRUMP’S EPA, THIS SECRECY IS THE NORM. IT’S NOT JUST ILLEGAL, IT PUTS WORKERS AND FAMILIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY AT RISK.
