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is working with industry to collect better exposure information for the risk manage- 

 ment review process. Furthermore, OPPT is achieving a greater customer focus in 

 its data collection and dissemination. Our work on identifying environmentally pref- 

 erable cleaning products with GSA and our Design for the Environment (DfE) work 

 with the printing industry are examples of information tailored to meet the needs 

 of those who manufacture and use chemicals. We can see a time in the future where 

 we will provide information more directly to consumers as well. 



Numerous efforts to improve information collection and dissemination are ongo- 

 ing. One significant challenge in increasing the amount of information available to 

 the public has been the amount of TSCA information claimed as business confiden- 

 tial. Through the Confidential Business Information (CBI) reform process, we are 

 exploring how to improve public access to information within the limits of TSCA's 

 authority. OPPT has embarked on a series of both regulatory and cooperative initia- 

 tives to limit the amount of information claimed as conJBdential to the extent nec- 

 essary to protect the competitive position of American industry. This has, and will 

 continue to have, the effect of increasing the availability of information to the inter- 

 ested public. 



2. Helping to set goals. An agency like EPA is inevitably in the goal-setting busi- 

 ness in the sense that it defines environmental problems. For a toxics program this 

 role can take several forms. In some cases we explicitly define a list of chemicals 

 needing some specific action. In other cases we begin goal-setting activities in the 

 private sector by expressing a health or environmental concern about a practice or 

 situation that may present significant risks. At other times EPA sets goals by ar- 

 ticulating an environmental ethic or framework for making chemical management 

 decisions. 



The current toxics program has been articulating goals in several contexts. We 

 now issue biennially a Master Testing List that identifies the testing needs of the 

 Federal government. The 33/50 program asked corporations to make commitments 

 for emissions reduction through pollution prevention for 17 specified chemicals. We 

 have developed a tool called the Use Cluster Scoring System that allows us to iden- 

 tify the industrial use patterns that appear to present higher risks and opportuni- 

 ties for pollution prevention. We have also worked with a variety of groups to ad- 

 vance a "Design for the Environment" ethic in the development and evolution of 

 technology and material choices. We have also followed closely the development of 

 product stewardship principles in the chemical industry. 



Goal-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, which now includes over 70,000 chemicals, includes chemicals 

 that are potentially harmful as well as chemicals which are the promising safer sub- 

 stitutes for existing chemicals. Also many of the chemicals on the inventory are not 

 even in commerce. In this context it is particularly important to set priorities and 

 focus public concern on those chemicals and chemical use patterns that present sig- 

 nificant risk. 



3. Targeting direct action on certain priority areas: This part of the strategy en- 

 compasses our risk management effort (the RM process described earlier) that in- 

 cludes both regulatory and non-regulatory projects. These projects are sometimes fo- 

 cused around particular chemicals. Increasingly we are looking at clusters of chemi- 

 cals that can be used to perform a particular task. This "use cluster" approach seeks 

 to compare risks of the various chemicals that compete against each other in a par- 

 ticular technological or economic niche. The task is to identify those chemicals or 

 chemicals in combination with technologies that represent a safer way of performing 

 the essential function in a cost effective manner. Thus, for example, instead of look- 

 ing at a single chemical that happens to be a paint stripper, we look at a set of 

 chemicals that perform as paint strippers and clarify what seem to be the safer ma- 

 terials to use. 



We are also considering the possibility of using our RM review process to target 

 priority geographical areas. This approach will enable us to work with states and 

 regions to help set priorities and goals for geographic areas, and allow us to address 

 important environmental justice issues. 



