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Competitive Enterprise Institute Wants Congress to Target EPA's IRIS and Safer Choice Programs

Angela Logomasini, with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), wrote about what CEI would like to see the new Congress defund: EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) and Safer Choice program (formerly called “Design for the Environment”).

She claims that congressional oversight committees, the Government Accountability Office, and the National Academy of Sciences have all urged EPA to reform the IRIS process to address scientific and procedural problems. She suggests that Congress could address problems with IRIS by moving its functions and funding into the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) program at EPA. "TSCA's requirements for reliance on "best available, peer reviewed science" as well as weight of the evidence consideration could make IRIS evaluations more meaningful. In addition, as part of a formal regulatory program, chemical assessments would hopefully be more transparent."

Logomazini also takes issue with EPA's Safer Choice program, another non-regulatory program that "calls on companies to eliminate certain chemicals from their products voluntarily, largely based on hazard rather than actual risk." She says "Safer Choice is forcing product reformulations without justification, and many useful products may be eliminated from the market. For example, EPA has used this program to force certain flame retardant chemicals from the marketplace, without much regard for the fact that replacements may not work as well."


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Documents

Name Date
flame retardant Mar 1, 2016
congressional oversight Jul 16, 2014

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