179 



turing, processing and distribution. It is obviously necessary that EPA and the pub- 

 lic become aware of how chenucals are used and in what quantities in order to fulfill 

 TSCA's mandate to collect adequate data on the effects of chemical substances and 

 mixtures on health and the environment. Congress should authorize the capability 

 to collect use data and obligate EPA to develop all such initiatives to clearly reflect 

 the right to know policies and public information purposes in the Act — which is to 

 say, a Chemical Use Inventory should be accessible to the public. 



Development of initiatives like a potential lUR-based Chemical Use Inventory 

 (CUI) must remain distinct, however, from the need to periodically conduct a com- 

 plete inventory update and to remove chemicals from the inventory that are no 

 longer imported or manufactured. For instance, if in the course of a comprehensive 

 update of the inventory a chemical previously listed is not reported, it shall be re- 

 moved from the inventory. If, at later point, a chemical enters commerce again, it 

 should proceed through the New Chemicals Program to become listed on the Inven- 

 tory. This objective would ensure that the Inventory reflects some current trends in 

 the commercial use of chemicals. 



Another distinct and vital objective of TSCA should be the obligation to collect 

 basic sets of data on the health effects of chemicals whose characteristics are not 

 known. Base data sets such as those developed for Organization for Economic Co- 

 operation and Development (OECD) chemicals program should be integrated into 

 the New Chemicals Program to obtain data on new chemicals or new uses and to 

 shift the cost for providing such information properly to the industrial sector. EPA 

 must have an agenda, not only for managing existing TSCA information and known 

 risks, but for collecting and acting upon information about unknown risks. 



8. State Access to CBI 



Carol Browner is on the record as saying states need to be full partners in envi- 

 ronmental protection. After all, she has pointed out that local solutions are some- 

 times the best directed solutions. If the Agency is committed to this empowerment, 

 then states must have access to state specific data. Presently under TSCA states 

 are barred from this information. 



The bar on access to confidential data cripples the utility of the statute and limits 

 the usefulness of data which is collected at great expense by the Agency and is gen- 

 erated at great expense by industry. Unless states do receive access to this data 

 they can not be made full partners. Such diverse groups as Exxon, Union Carbide, 

 CMA, AFL-CIO are on the record as being in favor of states having access to infor- 

 mation directed to the agency as CBI. 



All information that is collected under TSCA is potentially useful, not only to the 

 EPA and states, but to the public. Most information submitted to EPA is in the form 

 of raw data so placing such information in the public domain carries with it a need 

 to provide meaningful ways of using the data. In the case of state access, Congress 

 should be careful not to require states to adopt equivalent CBI security procedures 

 as EPA. EPA labors under the yoke of the Polaroid Consent Decree which has pro- 

 duced cumbersome security measures. For instance, CBI cannot be transferred from 

 one person to the next without logging it in and out of the CBI center. 



CONCLUSIONS 



In summary, if we accept the notion that public interest in the proliferation of 

 toxic substances should remain passive, which is the conclusion of the asbestos court 

 ruling, or as industry now suggests with its demand for heightened risk assessment 

 standards and cosVbenefit analysis, we will doom TSCA to the same disabled role 

 in controlling toxic risks that it has today. If, however, we understand that the qual- 

 ity of life in vulnerable communities, and elsewhere, is ultimately connected with 

 the right to know and that community concerns about toxics have specific value to 

 be weighed in the regulatory process, then we must establish as a general purpose 

 of TSCA that information collected on toxic chemicals is information in the public 

 domain. Furthermore, TSCA must enunciate that pollution prevention is the prin- 

 ciple of first choice to achieve environmental stewardship and that promoting public 

 understanding of the risks of chemicals through the development and dissemination 



