[Pharmwaste] EPA finalizing list of compounds to be tested for effects on glands, hormones

[DeBiasi,Deborah]

http://www.eenews.net/gw/

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

 14. CHEMICALS: EPA finalizing list of compounds to be tested for
effects on glands, hormones
Russell J. Dinnage, Greenwire reporter
U.S. EPA plans to release "in the next few weeks" a long-awaited list of
chemicals to be screened for their potential to damage the reproduction
and growth of people and wildlife, an agency spokeswoman said today.

The agency has been working on suspected endocrine disrupters for 11
years -- since EPA's Office of Research and Development ranked the issue
among its top six research priorities in 1996. Endocrine disrupters
affect glands and hormones that regulate many bodily functions, most
notably reproduction.

Environmentalists who have campaigned to force EPA to test the chemicals
and limit public exposure to them say the agency's effort is going to
fall far short of what is needed. "I'm very, very discouraged," said
zoologist Theo Colborn, a University of Florida professor and co-author
of a 1996 book on endocrine disruptors, Our Stolen Future.

Colborn participated in EPA committees that attempted to design assays
to test for endocrine disruption. She said industry representatives
managed to control the panels' progress. "From day one, they never
called in the people who actually discovered endocrine disruptors," she
said in an interview. "They only ever called in toxicologists and not
endocrinologists, biochemists or other kinds of maverick health people.
As a result, a lot of these review committees are controlled by
corporate toxicologists."

EPA spokeswoman Ernesta Jones defended the agency's efforts. "The list
of chemicals was developed through a very open and transparent process
with equal access for all interested parties to provide input," she said
in an e-mail today.

EPA's Office of Science Coordination and Policy is drawing up the list.
The effort springs from the Endocrine Disruptor Research Program,
created in 1998 when Congress passed the Food Quality Protection Act,
which directs EPA to screen pesticides for estrogenic activity in humans
as well as for other endocrine effects.

EPA outlined how it would select chemicals for screening under that law
in a 2005 Federal Register notice.

The notice says the agency would select 50 to 100 chemicals for the list
"based on their relatively high potential for human exposure rather than
using a combination of exposure- and effects-related factors."

"The scope of this first group of chemicals to be tested includes
pesticide active ingredients and high production volume chemicals used
as pesticide inerts," the notice says. "This will allow EPA to focus its
initial screening efforts on a smaller and more manageable universe of
chemicals that emphasizes the early attention to the pesticide chemicals
that Congress specifically mandated EPA to test for possible endocrine
effects."

EPA and chemical industry representatives are emphasizing that a
chemical's inclusion on the list does not suggest its probable toxicity.
"The list is NOT based on any effects data, but rather it's based on
exposure data," Jones said in the e-mail. "Therefore it shouldn't be
seen as a list of chemicals we think are endocrine disruptors. The
statute mandates that ALL pesticide chemicals be screened. This simply
starts that process."

Said Mark Maier of CropLife America, the trade group for major
manufacturers, formulators and distributors of pest control products:
"The chemicals were chosen [for the list] because EPA believes humans
are likely to be exposed to them either through their diet, drinking
water or through other environmental exposures."

Two-tiered screening
The EPA endocrine disruptor program puts chemicals into two tiers. The
first is a screening layer, the second includes chemicals that could be
endocrine disruptors based on screening results and need thorough
testing to determine their potential health effects.

The list that EPA is currently reviewing will feature chemicals from the
second tier. That means that chemicals such as phthalates and
bisphenol-A that are widely considered endocrine disruptors will not be
on the list, participants in the EPA committees said.

"It took us two months just to resolve what the definition of an
endocrine disruptor was," Colborn said. "In the end, EPA never let us
actually define the chemicals, we were just allowed to use a description
of them. No definition was ever resolved."

Maier said he expects the list will include 15 chemicals that are
non-active ingredients in pesticides and a further 80 that are active.
Many high-production chemicals will be left off the list because EPA
does not have enough toxicity information about them and needs to do
more testing, he said.

"EPA has done a good job in the past of communicating to the public that
screening lists are not chemicals known to have endocrine activity,"
Maier said. "My fear is that when regulators or groups in the European
Union and other countries see the list, they might believe listed
chemicals are endocrine disruptors before they have ever been tested."

But health advocacy groups are concerned the agency is not going far
enough to warn people about risks associated with the chemicals. "The
list doesn't go as far as it could in terms of protecting human health,"
said Marisa Walker, a spokeswoman for the California-based Breast Cancer
Fund. "At what point will they decide when we should stop using these
chemicals?"

Environmental Working Group staff scientist Rebecca Sutton said she was
pleased EPA was finally taking an in-depth look at certain chemicals.
But the length of the effort to assemble the list is problematic, she
said.

"We do not want to see another 10 years go by before EPA does anything
about such chemicals," Sutton said.

 


Deborah L. DeBiasi
Email:   dldebiasi at deq.virginia.gov
WEB site address:  www.deq.virginia.gov
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Office of Water Permit Programs
Industrial Pretreatment/Toxics Management Program
Mail:          P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA  23218 (NEW!)
Location:  629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA  23219
PH:         804-698-4028
FAX:      804-698-4032