EPA ASKS INDUSTRY FOR INFORMATION ON SAFER CHEMICALS

FROM:  U.S. EPA

The EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) is announcing an initiative to expand the Design for the Environment (DfE) Safer Chemical Ingredients List (SCIL) with chemicals in new and existing functional component classes.  We are inviting chemical manufacturers to submit information on their safer chemicals to EPA for review and listing on the SCIL. Adding more chemicals to the SCIL should foster innovation and growth in safer products, increase markets for business, and help protect people and the environment.

The SCIL contains chemicals that meet DfE’s rigorous safer chemical criteria and are eligible for use in the DfE Safer Product Labelling program. To date, SCIL-listed chemicals have been primarily used in cleaning and detergent products. The SCIL currently contains chemicals from the ingredient classes typically found in cleaners and detergents (surfactants, solvents, chelants, colorants, etc.).  Numbering over 650 discrete substances, SCIL chemicals have played an important role in enhancing the transparency of and increasing participation in the Safer Product Labeling Program.  Product manufacturers and many others use the SCIL as they develop or enhance formulations to earn the DfE Safer Product Label, qualify for retailer sustainability programs, meet company innovation goals, or learn more about the ingredients used to make safer products. Retailers have used the Safer Product Label to qualify products for their sustainability programs.

Today’s announcement opens the door for the expansion of safer chemicals and functional-use classes on the SCIL.  EPA has posted a “Steps to SCIL Listing” . The Agency is asking manufacturers with candidate chemicals to work with a DfE-qualified third party to prepare a profile on the chemical, based on the program’s safer chemical criteria.  EPA will use the profile and Agency criteria and expertise to make the listing decision.  The presence of safer chemicals in new component classes, and with new functionalities, on SCIL will create opportunities to label and promote new types of safer products, potentially bringing the benefits of the Safer Product Label to new markets and populations of workers and consumers.

EPA BANNING POPULAR RODENT CONTROL PRODUCTS

Rat Looking For A Home.  Credit:  Wikimedia.

FROM: U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
EPA Moves to Ban 12 D-Con Mouse and Rat Control Products
Action Will Prevent Thousands of Accidental Exposures Among Children Each Year

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving to ban the sale of 12 D-Con mouse and rat poison products produced by Reckitt Benckiser Inc. because these products fail to comply with current EPA safety standards. Approximately 10,000 children a year are accidentally exposed to mouse and rat baits; EPA has worked cooperatively with companies to ensure that products are both safe to use around children and effective for consumers. Reckitt Benckiser Inc., maker of D-Con brand products, is the only rodenticide producer that has refused to adopt EPA’s safety standards for all of its consumer use products.

"Moving forward to ban these products will prevent completely avoidable risks to children, said James Jones, acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. "With this action, EPA is ensuring that the products on the market are both safe and effective for consumers."

The agency has worked with a number of companies during the last five years to develop safer rodent control products that are effective, affordable, and widely available to meet the needs of consumers. Examples of products meeting EPA safety standards include Bell Laboratories’ Tomcat products, PM Resources’ Assault brand products and Chemsico’s products.

The EPA requires rodenticide products for consumer use to be contained in protective tamper-resistant bait stations and prohibits pellets and other bait forms that cannot be secured in bait stations. In addition, the EPA prohibits the sale to residential consumers of products containing brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difethialone, and difenacoum because of their toxicity to wildlife.

For companies that have complied with the new standards in 2011, EPA has received no reports of children being exposed to bait contained in bait stations. EPA expects to see a substantial reduction in exposures to children when the 12 D-Con products that do not comply with current standards are removed from the consumer market as millions of households use these products each year.