EPA Announces New Strategic Plan for Evaluating the Toxicity of Chemicals

EPA announced on March 25, 2009, that it is releasing a new approach to decision making regarding agency regulatory decisions and policies. The new approach is designed to incorporate risk assessment science into its decision making process and EPA believes it will result in better protection for human health and the environment. The plan is titled “U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Strategic Plan for Evaluating the Toxicity of Chemicals,” and is available at: epa.gov/osa/spc/toxicitytesting.

 

The plan provides for a new scientific approach that will allow EPA to assess risks from many chemicals and mixtures by adopting new toxicity testing methods that use recent advances in molecular biology, genomics, and computational sciences.  When fully implemented, EPA states that it will be able to screen thousands of environmental chemicals quickly for potentially harmful effects. The strategic plan will also allow EPA scientists to look at how children may react differently to the same chemicals as adults, thus providing better health protection for children.

 

For more information on the plan, contact Suzanne Ackerman at 202-564-4355 or email her at: ackerman.suzanne@epa.gov.

 

This article was authored by Skipp Kropp, Jackson Kelly PLLC. For more information on the author see here.