Eleven AGs Submitted Comments to EPA on Risk Evaluations for Toxic Substances

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey led a coalition of 11 attorneys general submitted comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) strongly critical of the agency’s proposed framework for the evaluation of the risk posed by toxic chemicals like asbestos to public health and the environment. The AGs argued in their comments that the EPA’s new proposal is counter to the intended purpose of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, which was signed into law just two years prior, on June 22, 2016. The Lautenberg Act was passed as an amendment to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The attorneys general emphasized that Congress amended TSCA in a clear attempt to remove obstacles that had prevented the EPA from playing “a more robust role in protecting public health and the environment,” and that the agency’s attempt to ignore known uses of toxic chemicals represents an “unlawfully restrictive application of TSCA.” The AGs argued that this can only result in “deeply flawed risk evaluations” that “make it impossible for EPA to fulfill its statutory mandate.”