As EPA Weighs Changes, EDF Says New Chemical Approvals Fail Workers

摘要

Environmentalists are charging that the Trump administration's process for approving new chemicals under the recently revised toxics law without restrictions fails to adequately address risks to workers, building on longstanding opposition to the new chemicals review process as Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has pledged revisions. Richard Denison, a lead senior scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), says that an analysis of dozens of EPA approvals of new chemicals or new chemical uses under the Trump administration's streamlined process shows the agency identifying, but failing to address, significant risks to workers, instead relying on workers to wear personal protective equipment (PPE), which federal regulators have long cited as an inadequate last resort.