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<blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #1010FF 1.5pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 4.0pt;
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/38260974.html <br>
<br>
EPA a failure on chemicals, audit finds <br>
Assessment of toxic risks inadequate, says new chief <br>
<br>
By Meg Kissinger of the Journal Sentinel <br>
<br>
Posted: Jan. 24, 2009 <br>
<br>
The Environmental Protection Agency's ability to assess toxic chemicals <br>
is as broken as the nation's financial markets and needs a total <br>
overhaul, a congressional audit has found. <br>
<br>
The Government Accountability Office has released a report saying the <br>
EPA lacks even basic information to say whether chemicals pose <br>
substantial health risks to the public. It says actions are needed to <br>
streamline and increase the transparency of the EPA's registry of <br>
chemicals. And it calls for measures to enhance the agency's ability to <br>
obtain health and safety information from the chemical industry. <br>
<br>
Lisa Jackson, the EPA's new administrator, promised to take the report <br>
under consideration. <br>
<br>
"It is clear that we are not doing an adequate job of assessing and <br>
managing the risks of chemicals in consumer products, the workplace and <br>
the environment," <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jackson</st1:place></st1:City>
said in a prepared statement Friday. "It is <br>
now time to revise and strengthen EPA's chemicals management and risk <br>
assessment programs." <br>
<br>
The Journal Sentinel has chronicled the failure of the EPA to disclose <br>
information about toxic chemicals in its series, "Chemical Fallout," <br>
which began in 2007. Last month, the newspaper reported that the agency <br>
routinely allows companies to keep new information about their chemicals <br>
secret, including compounds that have been shown to cause cancer and <br>
respiratory problems. <br>
<br>
Earlier in 2008, the Journal Sentinel revealed that the EPA's Voluntary <br>
Children's Chemical Evaluation Program, which relies on companies to <br>
provide information about the dangers of the chemicals they produce, is <br>
all but dead. And it disclosed that the agency's program to screen <br>
chemicals that damage the endocrine system had failed to screen a single <br>
chemical more than 10 years after the program was launched. <br>
<br>
Health and environmental advocates pounced on the GAO's findings as <br>
proof that the EPA has been shirking its responsibilities for years. <br>
<br>
"This just shows that the EPA is not any better able to protect <br>
Americans from risky chemicals than FEMA was to save <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">New Orleans</st1:place></st1:City> or the <br>
SEC was to cope with the financial collapse," said John Peterson Myers, <br>
a scientist and author who has been writing about chemical risks to <br>
human health for more than three decades. <br>
<br>
For the EPA to be compared to the collapsed financial markets <br>
dramatically underscores the need for a complete overhaul of the <br>
regulation of toxic chemicals, said Richard Wiles, executive director of <br>
Environmental Working Group, a health watchdog organization based in <br>
Washington, D.C. <br>
<br>
"The EPA joins the hall of shame of failed government programs,"
Wiles said. <br>
<br>
The EPA is at high risk for waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement and <br>
needs a broad-based transformation, the auditors found. <br>
<br>
"The EPA lacks adequate scientific information on the toxicity of many <br>
chemicals that may be found in the environment - as well as on tens of <br>
thousands of chemicals used commercially in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>," the GAO <br>
report said. "EPA's inadequate progress in assessing toxic chemicals <br>
significantly limits the agency's ability to fulfill its mission of <br>
protecting human health and the environment." <br>
<br>
The EPA's ability to protect public health and the environment depends <br>
on credible and timely assessments of the risks posed by toxic <br>
chemicals, the GAO found. Its Integrated Risk Information System, which <br>
contains assessments of more than 500 toxic chemicals, "is at serious <br>
risk of becoming obsolete because the EPA has been unable to keep its <br>
existing assessments current or to complete assessments of important <br>
chemicals of concern." <br>
<br>
The EPA urgently needs to streamline and increase the transparency of <br>
this assessment process, the report says. <br>
<br>
"Overall, the EPA has finished only nine assessments in the past three <br>
years," the report found. "At the end of 2007, most of the 70 ongoing
<br>
assessments had been under way for more than five years." <br>
<br>
The EPA needs additional authority to that provided in the Toxic <br>
Substances Control Act to obtain health and safety information from the <br>
chemical industry, the GAO auditors found. <br>
<br>
"They need to shift more of the burden to chemical companies to <br>
demonstrate the safety of their products," the report found. <br>
<br>
Strengthening the EPA is one of the GAO's three most urgent priorities <br>
for the Obama administration. The GAO also called for overhauling the <br>
nation's financial regulatory system, whose inattention helped trigger <br>
the global financial crisis, and improving the Food and Drug <br>
Administration's ability to protect the public from unsafe or <br>
ineffective drugs and other medical products. <br>
<br>
The list is updated every two years and released at the start of each <br>
new Congress to help in setting oversight agendas. Recent Congresses and <br>
administrations have been particularly alert to GAO's High-Risk List and <br>
have used its findings to help tailor agency-specific solutions as well <br>
as broader initiatives across government. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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