EPA Provides Public with Easier Access to Chemical Information

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has introduced a new web-based tool that will enable the public to search for and have easy access to health and safety studies on industrial chemicals. As part of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s continued efforts to enhance EPA's chemical management program and increase transparency, the chemical data access tool allows users to conduct a chemical-specific search for health and safety studies that have been submitted to the agency under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The tool will also be added to Data.Gov, a website developed by the Obama Administration to provide public access to important government information.

The new tool will for the first time give the public the ability to electronically search EPA’s database of more than 10,000 health and safety documents on a wide range of chemicals that they may come into contact with every day.

Under TSCA, companies are required to submit health and safety studies to the agency when they show there may be a substantial risk, when chemical testing is required, or to facilitate EPA's review of new chemicals. The public now will be able to have easy access to these studies simply by searching for the name of a chemical or for a particular word or phrase, such as a health or safety concern addressed in a study.

In addition to making the health and safety studies more accessible, EPA is taking aggressive action to reduce companies' efforts to keep the identity of the chemicals confidential when health and safety studies are submitted to the agency.

More about the new web tool

More on chemicals

CONTACT:

Dale Kemery (News Media Only)
202-564-7839
202-564-4355
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David E. Giamporcaro
Industry and Small Business Liaison, Environmental Assistance Division
Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
East Building
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. (MC7408M)
Washington, D.C. 20460
Phone: (202)564-8107
Fax: (202)564-8813