EPA Makes Chemical
Information More Accessible to Public
For the first time, TSCA
chemical inventory free of charge online
WASHINGTON –
As part of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s strong commitment to
increase information on chemicals, for the first time, EPA is providing
web access, free of charge, to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
Chemical Substance Inventory. This inventory contains a consolidated
list of thousands of industrial chemicals maintained by the agency. EPA
is also making this information available on Data.Gov, a website
developed by the Obama Administration to provide public access to
important government information. This action represents another
step to increase the transparency of chemical information while
continuing to push for legislative reform of the 30 year old TSCA law.
“Increasing the public’s access to information on chemicals is one of
Administrator Jackson’s top priorities,” said Steve Owens, assistant
administrator for EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic
Substances. “The American people are entitled to easily accessible
information on chemicals, and today’s action is part of a series of
ongoing steps that EPA is taking to empower the public with this
important information.”
Until now, the consolidated public portion of the TSCA Inventory has
only been available by purchase from the National Technical Reports
Library or other databases. By adding the consolidated TSCA Inventory
to the Agency’s website and to Data.Gov, EPA is making this information
readily available to the public at no cost.
Currently, there are more than 84,000 chemicals manufactured, used, or
imported in the U.S.
listed on the TSCA Inventory. However, EPA is unable to publicly
identify nearly 17,000 of these chemicals because the chemicals have
been claimed as confidential business information under TSCA by the
manufacturers. Under Administrator Jackson’s leadership, EPA has
already begun a series of aggressive steps to provide greater
transparency on chemical risk information, including an announcement in
January that signaled EPA’s intent to reduce a certain type of
confidentiality claim, or Confidential Business Information (CBI) claim,
on the identity of chemicals
In the coming months, EPA will take further steps to increase
transparency and make more information available to the public,
including adding TSCA facility information, and the list of chemicals
manufactured to the Facility Registry System (FRS). FRS is an integrated
database that provides the public with easier access to EPA’s
environmental information and better tools for cross-media environmental
analysis. The addition of TSCA facility and chemical databases to FRS
will provide the public with information on the facilities in their
communities using industrial chemicals.
For information about EPA’s increasing transparency on chemical risk
information see
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/bd4379a92ceceeac8525735900400c27/631cf22eb540c4db852576b2004eca47!OpenDocument
For access to the entire TSCA Inventory, please visit
http://www.epa.gov/oppt/newchems/pubs/invntory.htm
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