제  목 : Right-to-Know Will Expand to Chemical Use
  일  자 : 1997년 01월
  제공처 : Safety ＆ Health

  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency intends to expand its
       Community Right-to-Know program. The program, which originally
       required industrial facilities to report on their emissions of
       toxic chemicals, now will require these companies to let their
       surrounding communities know how they use the chemicals. This
       reporting is called either chemical-use reporting or materials
       accounting.

  The EPA's first formal action on these changes to chemical-use
       reporting was the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. Under this
       notice, companies would have to report the following informati on
       chemical use:

  o The amounts of toxic chemicals that enter local industrial
    facilities
  o The amounts of chemicals transformed into products and waste
  o The amounts of toxic chemicals that leave the facility

  The EPA also may include a requirement to report information
       about occupational-exposure indicators and worker demographics at
       facilities. Facilities would provide this additional data on Toxic
       Release Inventory information forms.

  "Today's step to expand the Community Right-to-Know program
       would provide Americans with more information than ever before about
       toxic chemicals - and how they are used by industrial frcilities -
       in communities all over the country," says Carol Browner, EPA
       administrator. "The expansion we are considering would give the
       public the right to know not just which chemicals come out of local
       industrial facilities, but which chemicals go into their neighbor-
       hoods and how they are used."

  Environmental and public-interest groups have acknowledged that
       the TRI is an extremely useful tool, but they say it falls short
       because it fails to provide the complete right-to-know picture the
       public needs to fully understand toxic-chemical issues,
       according to the EPA.

  Among the "data gaps" in the TRI is the need for:

  o Information on the flow and use of toxic chemicals at a facility
  o A way to track toxic chemicals in products
  o Information on occupational issues
  o A "scorecard" to measure and promote pollution prevention
    and source reduction
  o A ledger check on TRI estimates
  o A way for the TRI to serve as a better tool for regulatory-
    integration efforts
  o Other uses such as research and priority setting

  "The information obtained through chemical-use reporting will
       be used to fill in those data gaps," says Matt Gillen of the EPA's
       Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics.

  "There are a number of benefits in tracking chemical use,"
       he says, and he primary one is pollution prevention. "Facilities
       can use the TRI to help their chemical-use efficiency. If they can
       track the efficiency of their use, less waste is created, and that
       will lead to pollution prevention."

  Another benefit of chemical-use reporting will be the ability
       to obtain information about worker exposure to chemicals. "What
       chemicals are most workers exposed to?" asks Gillen. "No one has
       that information. Chemical-use reporting will give a general idea
       of the exposures of workers in facilities."

  The EPA expects to develop a formal proposal during l997, with
       several public comment periods, according to Gillen.

  Since l988, facilities that report chemical releases to the TRI
       have reduced their reported releases of toxic chemicals by 44 percent,
       or l.6 billion pounds, according to the EPA.

  For general information about the TRI and the proposed rule-making,
       contact the EPA's Emergency Planning and Community  Right-to-Know
       Hotline at (800) 535-0202, or Matt Gillen in the EPA's Office of
       Pollution Prevention and Toxics at (202) 260-l80l.  Electronrc
       copies of the notice are available on the lnternet at http://
       www.epa.gov/opptintr/tri.