[CPEO-MEF] VOCs: EPA finalizes TSCA Risk Evaluation for TCE

[Lenny Siegel]

EPA’s final risk evaluation of trichloroethylene is scientifically flawed and understates risks to workers, the general public and those most susceptible

By Richard Denison 
Environmental Defense Fund
November 23, 2020

Today the Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its final risk evaluation for trichloroethylene (TCE).  It largely tracks the agency’s draft document, retaining numerous flaws that severely understate the highly toxic chemical’s risks to workers, the general public and those most susceptible to its health impacts.

Among the evaluation’s most serious deficiencies is the abandonment of a bedrock principle of chemical risk assessment: that risk estimates be based on the most sensitive health effect.  Sadly, the final document retains the unprotective approach the Trump White House forced EPA to adopt, as reported in detail by Elizabeth Shogren of Reveal News.

Exposure to TCE is ubiquitous, coming from ambient and indoor air, vapor intrusion from contaminated sites, groundwater and drinking water wells, and food – yet EPA’s evaluation ignores or downplays each of these exposure sources and pathways.


…

For the entire blog, see
http://blogs.edf.org/health/2020/11/23/epas-final-risk-evaluation-of-trichloroethylene-is-scientifically-flawed-and-understates-risks-to-workers-the-general-public-and-those-most-susceptible/ <http://blogs.edf.org/health/2020/11/23/epas-final-risk-evaluation-of-trichloroethylene-is-scientifically-flawed-and-understates-risks-to-workers-the-general-public-and-those-most-susceptible/>

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel at cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org





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