by Brianna Crandall — December 27, 2010—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 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.
The chemical data access tool allows users to conduct a chemical-specific search for more than 10,000 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 Web site developed by the Obama Administration to provide public access to important government information.
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 says it has been 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.
