EPA Proposes Adding 16 Chemicals to Toxics Release Inventory List
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to add 16 chemicals to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) list of reportable chemicals, the first expansion of the program in more than a decade. Established as part of the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA), TRI is a publicly available EPA database that contains information on toxic chemical releases and waste management activities reported annually by certain industries as well as federal facilities. EPA says the proposal is part of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s ongoing efforts to provide communities with more complete information on chemicals.
The chemicals the agency is proposing to add have been classified as "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen" by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) in its Report on Carcinogens (RoC) document. Based on a review of the NTP RoC data, EPA believes that these 16 chemicals meet the EPCRA section 313(d)(2)(B) statutory listing criteria because they can reasonably be anticipated to cause cancer in humans.
Additionally, four of the chemicals are being proposed for addition to the polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) category. The PACs category is a category of special concern, because PACs are persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic (PBT) chemicals, and as such, they are likely to remain in the environment for a very long time, are not readily destroyed, and may build up or accumulate in body tissue.
The TRI, established as part of the EPCRA of 1986, contains information on nearly 650 chemicals and chemical groups from about 22,000 industrial facilities in the U.S. Congress enacted EPCRA to provide the public with additional information on toxic chemicals in their communities.
EPA will accept public comments on the proposal for 60 days after it appears in the Federal Register. The 16 chemicals the agency is proposing to add are: Furan; Glycidol; Isoprene; Methyleugenol; o-Nitroanisole; Nitromethane; Phenolphthalein; Tetrafluoroethylene; Tetranitromethane; Vinyl Fluoride; 1-Amino-2,4-dibromoanthraquinone; 2,2-bis(Bromomethyl)-1,3-propanediol; 1,6-Dinitropyrene; 1,8-Dinitropyrene; 6-Nitrochrysene; and 4-Nitropyrene. The latter four are the agency's proposed additions to the PACs category. For more information, including each chemical's CAS number, go to www.epa.gov/tri/lawsandregs/ntp_chemicals/index.html.