NewsFlashUS, Canada, Mexico to test 9,000 chems

21 August 2007 20:59  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--The US, Canada and Mexico announced plans on Tuesday to determine and control environmental risks posed by more than 9,000 chemicals produced in quantities above 25,000 pounds (11.3 tonnes) annually.

 

The tripartite agreement was announced at the end of a summit meeting in Montebello, Quebec, between President George Bush, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Felipe Calderon.

 

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said the three countries will “co-ordinate efforts to assess and take action on industrial chemicals”.

 

Under the agreement, by 2012 the US will complete risk characterisations “and take action as needed” on more than 9,000 chemicals produced in quantities of 25,000 pounds or more, so-called moderate volume chemicals. 

 

The agency did not specify what “action as needed” would entail or whether it might include banning some chemicals from commercial use. EPA officials were not immediately available for comment.

 

EPA said that the 2012 goal “is to ensure that these chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimise risks to health and the environment”.

 

In addition, the agreement provides that by 2020 the three countries will establish and maintain current information on chemical inventories held by the three nations. 

 

The three governments also agreed that they will co-ordinate their management of chemicals in North America “as outlined in other international agreements”.

 

The announcement did not specify what other international agreements might be pertinent to the tripartite arrangement.

 

The agreement will build on EPA’s high production volume (HPV) testing programme and Canada’s chemical management programme “to categorise chemicals for review, assessment and management”, the EPA said.

 

The nine-year-old HPV programme has been compiling toxicity data on the nearly 2,800 chemicals that are produced or imported in the US in volumes exceeding 100,000 pounds (450 tonnes) per year.

 

EPA said it will use the Canadian chemical management programme “as a starting point for US efforts to assess the hazards of moderate-volume chemicals”.

 

The US recently announced a new toxicity testing programme to determine which compounds among some 10,000 moderate-volume chemicals pose the greatest risk to human health or the environment.

 

US chemical industry officials were not immediately available to comment on the new three-nation chemical controls agreement.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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