Chemical Companies Accept the "Challenge"

Last year, Vice President Al Gore issued a "Challenge" to the U.S. chemical and petrochemical industries. The Vice President asked 900 companies to volunteer to "fill in the gaps" on basic health, safety and environmental (HSE) effects information on a list of over 2,800 high-production-volume (HPV) chemicals used in the United States.

ARCC unions and companies support the HPV Challenge approach to fill in HSE data gaps. Less than 300 of the substances contain chlorine. On a global basis, chlorine producers of North America, Europe and Japan are currently working together to identify a group of compounds for HPV testing.

An HPV substance is defined as a chemical made in or imported into the U.S. in a total amount exceeding one million pounds annually. This usually means that a number of companies are making and importing lesser amounts of the substance, and when added together its use exceeds one million pounds.

Under the Challenge, companies must review the HPV list, identify gaps in the HSE information required under current law, and volunteer to supply the missing data. Companies must contact EPA by the final deadline of December 1, 1999 to volunteer. Any HPV substance not volunteered will be subjected to mandatory testing under the Toxic Substances Control Act.

By mid-March, some 190 companies had already stepped forward volunteering to test 1,130 substances. Testing to fill in HPV data gaps will begin in the year 2000 and should be completed by 2004. The test methods and results will be published on the Internet and available to everyone.

ARCC believes that the chemical industry and other major manufacturing industries are entering a new era. Industries will work more closely with government, scientists, academics and private sector organizations in areas of product stewardship. In this new era, it will be better to be a leader than a laggard.

History of the Challenge

The HPV Challenge was created following the publication of a report entitled "Toxic Ignorance" by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The report says that too often the American public does not have ready access to basic information about HSE impacts of chemicals.

Subsequently, leaders from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA) and EDF agreed on a plan whereby industry would voluntarily fill in gaps in basic HSE data on HPV chemicals and make the information publicly available.

Given the number of chemicals involved, the three parties agreed that the voluntary program would allow companies to provide the information cost-effectively. Under the Challenge, chemical makers can form consortia to share testing costs, and categories of like chemicals can be tested instead of testing each and every substance separately. Even so, the cost to U.S. industry has been estimated at between $500 - $800 million.

Not everyone is happy about the HPV Challenge Program. Animal rights activists oppose the program claiming it will cause the deaths of millions of test animals. However, it is clear that the program will proceed. Government and industry are attempting to find ways to test without using so many animals.

U.S. Takes the Lead in Testing

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a European-based organization of 29 industrial nations including the U.S., already has a chemical testing program in place. The OECD program produces a "screening and information data set" (SIDS) on chemicals. However, the pace of OECD testing has been very slow. This has led to calls for the U.S. and other major industrial nations to test more quickly.

The International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) has announced its own program to voluntarily test 1,000 HPV chemicals over the next five years.

Over time, the data from the three programs will flow into the establishment of a single globally recognized and accessible database on HPV substances.

Related Endocrine Testing

As previously reported in ARCC News, the Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee completed its work last year. The EDSTAC, a multistakeholder panel, recommended that chemicals should be subjected to a "high-throughput" screening procedure to determine what substances should be tested for potential "hormone mimicking" characteristics in people and the environment. Under the Toxic Substances and Control Act, the screening program mechanism should be in place by August of this year. The screening and testing of thousands of chemicals will follow over the next several years, with costs paid by industry.