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June 16, 2017

Inside EPA Quotes Richard E. Engler, Ph.D., in “EPA Toxics Director Seeks ‘New Chemicals’ Program Fixes Beyond Backlog”

The ACTA Group

On June 16, 2017, Richard E. Engler, Ph.D., Senior Chemist at The Acta Group (Acta®), was quoted by Inside EPA discussing changes to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ‘New Chemicals’ program.

[…] Jeff Morris, director of EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), described some of the ongoing efforts he hopes will prevent further backlogs while speaking during a June 12 webinar.

[…]

Morris explained that with polymers undergoing the PMN process, OPPT staff originally thought they would have to issue a may present an unreasonable risk finding for some after looking at uses identified in the PMN and all reasonably foreseen uses.

More recently, Morris said, officials decided that they can issue protective findings of not likely to present a significant risk for some polymers by putting “a regulatory flag on it, to avoid [future uses of the chemical that] chang[ed] aspects of the substance to avoid changing the monomer to polymer ratio.”

Another panelist on the call, Richard Engler, a senior chemist with Bergeson & Campbell, encouraged Morris to expand the scope of chemicals to which such a flag could be applied beyond polymers, to other types of low hazard substances.

Morris responded that he is “open to considering it. It’s thinking like that will get us to the right place in the program.” […]

https://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-toxics-director-seeks-new-chemicals-program-fixes-beyond-backlog [subscription required]