6 



ment of State and Federal laws, but numerous efforts to improve 

 information collection and dissemination are ongoing. 



One significant challenge in increasing the amount of informa- 

 tion available to the public has been the amount of TSCA informa- 

 tion claimed as "confidential business information," or CBI. 

 Through a CBI reform process we are now exploring how to limit 

 the amount of information claimed as confidential to the extent 

 necessary to protect the competitive position of American industry, 

 and, at the same time, improve the public's access to information. 



One block of information that is missing under TSCA is on chem- 

 ical users. We believe this type of information could provide us 

 with better exposure and hazard data. 



The second part of our strategy — helping to set goals — is directly 

 tied to determining a toxics agenda. We need to set priorities and 

 focus public concerns on those chemicals and chemical use patterns 

 that present that most significant risks. We should also foster prod- 

 ucts stewardship and use the design for the environment ethic to 

 encourage the development of more environmentally friendly tech- 

 nologies. 



Groal setting is a particularly important component of a toxics 

 program because by definition we deal with a large number of 

 chemicals that vary greatly in toxicity. The TSCA inventory now 

 includes over 70,000 chemicals, and this charge gives an array of 

 what those chemicals are. Now out of these, there are 12,000 that 

 are polymers that we believe are of lower risk and 25,000 that are 

 not in commerce, and, therefore, do not pose a significant risk. Out 

 of those that are non-polymers that are in commerce, there are 

 16,000 that are present in high volume in commerce, and we be- 

 lieve that these are the chemicals on which we should be focusing 

 most of our attention. 



So by narrowing this list to a more manageable and appropriate 

 number, we still have a large number of chemicals in commerce 

 that are of concern. Our available tools for gathering testing data 

 about these chemicals are cumbersome. 



For example, in July 1993 we promulgated a TSCA section 4 

 multi-chemical toxicity end point test rule covering 10 chemicals. 

 In October 1993, however, we were sued by the Chemical Manufac- 

 turers Association. Settlement was only reached earlier this month. 

 We also promulgated a final TSCA section 4 test rule in October 

 of 1993 on four chemicals, and were sued by the manufacturers for 

 two of those four chemicals. Settlement negotiations are still under- 

 way for those. 



Generally we believe that less adversarial means that these en- 

 forceable consent agreements and voluntary agreements have lower 

 transaction costs for the agency, but, obviously, section 4 provides 

 an important incentive for entering into such agreements. We are 

 also setting priorities by using a tool we have developed called the 

 Use Cluster Scoring System. This system allows us to identify the 

 industrial use patterns that appear to present higher risks and op- 

 portunities for pollution prevention. To expand our information on 

 chemical uses, we are moving forward to amend the inventory up- 

 date rule to require information on consumer and industrial end 

 uses of manufactured chemicals. We are now beginning a regu- 



