January 12, 2009
Interim Report on Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program (NMSP) Available – EPA received a significant amount of data which has strengthened its understanding of the issues and commercial status of nanoscale materials. However, a number of environmental health and safety data gaps the Agency had hoped to fill through the NMSP still exist. EPA will continue the NMSP and is also considering how to best use its regulatory authorities to help address those data gaps.

December 8, 2008
EPA is encouraging the phase-out of mercury in glass non-fever thermometers used in industrial and laboratory settings by promoting alternatives to mercury in glass thermometers, eliminating mercury in EPA labs, reviewing industrial standards, and reviewing EPA regulations and test methods.

December 4, 2008
New Partnership Grants Demonstrate Integrated Pest Management - Grants totaling nearly $1 million have been awarded for projects that use Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approaches to reduce pesticide risk. The grants will support the demonstration of innovative IPM practices, technologies, outreach and education.

December 3, 2008
EPA, FDA, and USDA have issued a joint statement that there is no food or feed safety concern from an incident in which a small portion of an unauthorized genetically engineered (GE) cotton variety was harvested along with commercially available GE cotton.

November 25, 2008
A broad effort has been launched to gain a greater scientific understanding of the potential health risks of formaldehyde's use in pressed wood products. EPA issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) describing the Agency's efforts to investigate regulatory or other actions that might be appropriate to protect against risks posed by formaldehyde emitted from pressed wood products. A series of public meetings will solicit public input on the effort.

November 19, 2008
For outstanding achievements in manufacturing, using and encouraging the use of safer surfactants, 40 companies and organizations were named the first Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative Champions by EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. Learn about EPA's Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative and the new award program.

November 8, 2008
EPA Recognizes D.C. for Efforts to Protect Chesapeake Bay During Fifth Annual Green Festival – EPA’s Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program recognized one of its newest partners, the D.C. Office of the Clean City, for its efforts to increase public awareness of the condition of the Chesapeake Bay and to change behaviors that harm the Bay.

October 30, 2008
Nominations for 2009 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards - EPA is accepting nominations for the 2009 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. Self-nominations are expected and must be received by December 31. Read more information on how to enter the Award Competition.

October 16, 2008
The document Wire and Cable Insulation and Jacketing: Life-Cycle Assessments for Selected Applications - Summary is now available on the Design for the Environment Program web site, which summarizes the results of an evaluation of the potential environmental impacts of resin systems with alternative heat stabilizer formulations used in several wire and cable applications.

September 24, 2008
Chemical Assessment and Management Program (ChAMP) - EPA has outlined enhancements to ChAMP, including a reset of the TSCA Inventory and collecting health and safety information on inorganic high-production volume chemicals. Read the speech  (5 pp., 2.4MB, about PDF) and press release.

September 8, 2008
National Pollution Prevention Week - One of the most important ways to protect the environment is by reducing pollution before it ever gets to the environment. National Pollution Prevention Week is September 15-21, and this year's theme "Pollution Prevention - Where Sustainable Practices Begins" reminds us that preventing pollution is at the heart of sustainability.

September 2, 2008
Lead Test Kit Evaluation - EPA is evaluating the effectiveness of lead test kits by asking vendors to submit test kits for review to ensure fewer false negatives.

August 19, 2008
The new Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Import-Export Web site pulls together into one site a comprehensive presentation of information on TSCA import and export requirements that may apply to various chemicals and circumstances under, among others, TSCA Sections 4, 5, 6, 8, 12 and 13.

July 24, 2008
EPA Acts to Address Carbofuran Residues in Food - Due to considerable risks associated with the pesticide carbofuran in food and drinking water, EPA is revoking the regulations that allow carbofuran residues in food. In addition, EPA is proceeding on the path toward cancellation of the pesticide registration, which will address the risks to pesticide applicators and birds in treated fields.

July 14, 2008
Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) January 2007 - June 2008 Accomplishments Report Released - This web-based report highlights OPPT's expanded efforts to ensure the safety of existing chemicals through the newly created program "ChAMP," and OPPT's promotion of pollution prevention and environmental stewardship. Other accomplishments include initiating the Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program, issuing a new lead rule to reduce risks of lead poisoning in children, and reaching a milestone in the PFOA Stewardship Program with member companies' first annual progress reports received and made publicly available.

July 10, 2008
Soil Fumigant Pesticides Subject to New Safety Measures - EPA will require a suite of new mitigation measures that will work together to protect human health. These new safety measures for soil fumigant pesticides will increase protections for agricultural workers and bystanders - people who live, work, or otherwise spend time near fields that are fumigated.

June 24, 2008
2008 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Winners Announced - Five leading researchers have received awards for chemical technology innovations that promote cleaner, cheaper, and smarter chemistry. Developing safer, environmentally friendly chemicals and processes results in reduced waste, safer products, and reduced use of energy and resources. Over the past 13 years, collectively, award-winning technologies have eliminated more than 1.1 billion pounds of hazardous chemicals and solvents, saved over 21 billion gallons of water, and eliminated nearly 400 million pounds of carbon dioxide releases to air.

June 23, 2008
Following review of a TSCA Section 21 petition, EPA is launching a broad effort to gain a greater scientific understanding of the potential health risks of the use of formaldehyde in pressed wood products. Through this process, EPA will develop risk assessments on the potential adverse health effects, evaluate the costs and benefits of possible control technologies and approaches, and determine whether EPA action is needed to address any identified risks.

May 29, 2008
Making Rodenticide Products Safer - EPA is putting new measures in place to better protect children, pets, and wildlife from thousands of accidental exposures that occur every year from rodenticides. These practical and low cost measures provide protection while ensuring rodent control products will continue to be effective and affordable for all consumers.

April 21, 2008
New Green Building Approach - EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson announced a new Agency approach to help facilitate the mainstream adoption of green building practices to reduce the environmental and public health impacts of buildings and building-related products.

March 31, 2008
EPA announced new requirements to protect children from lead-based paint hazards in pre-1978 housing or child-occupied facilities being renovated or remodeled. The new lead rule requires contractors and construction professionals that work in these facilities to follow lead-safe work practice standards to reduce potential exposure to dangerous levels of lead for children in places they frequent.

March 18, 2008
EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson gave the keynote address at the Global Chemical Regulation Conference, attended by more than 300 chemical industry regulatory, environmental and health officials, in Baltimore, Md. The Administrator outlined the Agency's commitments to assess and initiate needed action on existing chemicals produced above 25,000 pounds per year made under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) and discussed several enhancements to EPA's Chemical Assessment and Management Program (ChAMP), a program created to implement SPP commitments.

March 18, 2008
Apply for EPA recognition through the Design for the Environment (DfE) Program's Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative (SDSI). Through this initiative, DfE will recognize environmental leaders who voluntarily commit to using only safer surfactants. Applications must be submitted no later than May 30, 2008. Awards will be presented in late 2008 in Washington, DC.

February 22, 2008
Genetically Engineered (GE) Corn "Event 32" - EPA and two other Federal agencies are coordinating efforts following notification by Dow AgroSciences that the company detected extremely low levels of an unregistered GE pesticide product known as a plant-incorporated protectant (PIP) in three of its commercial GE hybrid corn seed lines. The three agencies have concluded that there are no public health, food or feed safety concerns. Additionally, EPA and USDA have determined that the unregistered GE corn PIP poses no plant pest or environmental concerns.

January 30, 2008
Need help interpreting Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) release data? Try the newly released update of EPA's popular computer-based screening tool, the Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI). This tool uses risk factors to put TRI release data into a chronic health context. Use it to examine trends, identify important emissions situations for follow-up, support community-based projects and more.

January 28, 2008
Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program (NMSP) Launched - The NMSP will encourage submission and development of key scientific information and use of risk management practices for chemical nanoscale materials. Submit your contact information if you are interested in participating in the NMSP.

January 8, 2008
EPA Submits Draft Notice of Intent to Cancel (NOIC) for All Carbofuran Registrations - EPA has opened a docket containing the materials provided to the FIFRA Science Advisory Panel (SAP) that is convening on February 5-8, 2008. The SAP will review the scientific assessment underlying EPA's NOIC for carbofuran and respond to questions posed by the Agency related to the impact on health and the environment of the proposal.

December 18, 2007
CARE Grants and Request for Proposals Announced - Eighteen communities have received cooperative agreement grants to continue improving health and the environment at the local level through the CARE program. EPA also announced the availability of approximately $3 million in cooperative agreement funding through 2008 CARE request for proposals.

December 5, 2007
Nominations for 2008 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards - EPA is accepting nominations for the 2008 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. Self-nominations are expected and must be received by December 31. Read more information on how to enter the Award Competition.

November 19, 2007
EPA has selected three 2007 awardees under the P2 Recognition Project that honors companies for developing innovative chemistry and technologies that further pollution prevention and other environmental goals. The 2007 awardees are BASF Corp., Clariant Corp., and Chisso America, Inc.

November 5, 2007
Federal purchasers, visit EPA's newly-redesigned Web site for Environmentally Preferable Purchasing. Get clear and easy access to federal procurement policies and guidance; information on specific products and services; on-line tools; calculators; publications, case studies, and related Web links. This site can help green vendors, businesses large and small -- and consumers, too.

October 21-27, 2007
National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week - This year's theme, "Protect Our Most Valuable Resource -- Our Children," highlights the importance of educating parents and children about the dangers of lead exposure, especially lead-paint hazards in housing. Lead poisoning prevention activities across the country.

October 16, 2007
PRIA Fee Determination Tree - This tool has been developed to help pesticide applicants accurately identify the category of their application and the amount of the required fee before an application is submitted to EPA.

October 5, 2007
EPA Requires Notification Prior to Use of Certain Motor Vehicle Switches - EPA issued a final Significant New Use Rule to require notification to EPA 90 days prior to U.S. manufacture, import, or processing of elemental mercury for use in convenience light switches, anti-lock brake system switches, and active ride control system switches in certain motor vehicles. This will provide EPA the opportunity to evaluate the potential risks of resuming the use of elemental mercury in such switches.

September 21, 2007
EPA to Regulate Ion-Generating Equipment as a Pesticide - EPA has determined that machines will be regulated as pesticides if the machines contain silver or other substances, and if they generate ions of those substances for express pesticidal purposes. EPA will work to identify the information needed to apply to register the machine as a pesticide, and give those products currently out of compliance time to obtain registration.

September 13, 2007
National Pollution Prevention Week - Reducing pollution before it ever gets to the environment is one of the most important ways to protect the environment. National Pollution Prevention Week is September 17-23, and this year's theme urges us to "Take the Next Step" toward sustainability.

September 10, 2007
HPV Chemical Hazard Characterizations - EPA released the first set of HPV Chemical Hazard Characterizations that summarize the basic hazards (toxicity) of over 100 HPV chemicals based upon collected program data. EPA will combine this information with human and environmental exposure information collected from EPA's Inventory Update Reporting (IUR) to develop a risk characterization and, based on that review, determine if additional action is needed to ensure the safety of the HPV chemicals' manufacture and use.

August 21, 2007
The US, Canada, and Mexico will work together to ensure the safe manufacture and use of industrial chemicals. The partnership will be built on EPA's ongoing efforts to study and characterize the risks of chemicals that are produced in high volumes. The US is committing to complete, by 2012, risk characterizations and initiate needed actions on more than 9,000 chemicals produced above 25,000 pounds per year in the country. Read more about the US-Canada-Mexico partnership. General information about chemical risks.

July 18, 2007
EPA and CDC Join Forces to Support Communities - EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have joined forces to support community environmental and health goals. The first four pilot project communities have been announced.

July 12, 2007
Public Asked To Comment on Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program Concept and Information Collection Request, TSCA Inventory Approach - To ensure stakeholder involvement in the development of the program, the agency is seeking public comment on approaches for the Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program and ICR and TSCA Inventory paper. A public meeting about the proposed approaches and materials will be held on August 2, 2007, in Arlington, Virginia.

June 26, 2007
2007 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Winners Announced - Leading researchers received awards for chemical technology innovations that promote cleaner, cheaper, and smarter chemistry. Developing safer, environmentally friendly chemicals and processes results in reduced waste, safer products, and reduced use of energy and resources. Over the past 12 years, Challenge winners have made nearly a billion pounds of progress including 193 million pounds of hazardous chemicals and solvents eliminated each year - enough to fill almost 900 railroad tank cars or a freight train 11 miles long.

June 22, 2007
EPA Assistant Administrator Testifies on Commodity Mercury (PDF) (6 pp., 20 KB) - Jim Gulliford testified before the House Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials on the export and storage of commodity-grade mercury and pending legislation, HR. 1534, the Mercury Export Ban Act of 2007. EPA is committed to finding protective and comprehensive solutions, both domestically and internationally, to complex mercury challenges.

June 11, 2007
EPA Advances Public Health and Environmental Protection with New Pesticide Screening - EPA is in the final stages to begin screening pesticides for their potential effect on the endocrine system. The agency is seeking comment for 90 days on the draft list of 73 pesticides to be evaluated under the new screening regimen. EPA's general approach in developing this list focuses on those pesticide active ingredients and pesticidal inerts with relatively high potential for human exposure or the environment, and not on possible endocrine disruption effects. This is not a draft list of potential endocrine disruptors in humans or other species.

June 5, 2007
Safer Lead Paint Practices in Child Facilities - The EPA proposed that contractors and construction professionals who work in child-occupied buildings follow lead-safe work practices and have accredited training and certification. Under this proposal, a child-occupied building includes child care centers, preschools, and kindergarten classrooms. This proposal is part of a comprehensive program that hopes to eliminate childhood lead poisoning as a major public health concern by the year 2010.

May 16, 2007
Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics 2005-2006 Accomplishments Report Released - EPA is releasing the first web-based report that highlights various efforts in the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics to ensure chemical safety under the Toxic Substances Control Act, and to promote pollution prevention and environmental stewardship. Accomplishments include making High Production Volume (HPV) chemical data publicly available through the newly-created web-based HPV Information System, initiating the PFOA Stewardship Program, and coordinating the development of the Mercury Roadmap.

Soil Fumigant Risk-Reduction Options - As part of EPA's ongoing evaluation of soil fumigant pesticides, the agency is seeking public comment for 60 days on risk-reduction options for several soil fumigants. During the public comment period, EPA will also host and participate in several public meetings to allow the Agency to obtain first-hand comments on possible human health risk mitigation options from stakeholders who are most affected by soil fumigant use.

Jim Gulliford Travels to Rochester CARE Community - As part of celebrating Earth Day, on April 26 EPA Assistant Administrator Jim Gulliford traveled to Rochester, New York to meet with community and business leaders. Mr. Gulliford visited an older home that has been renovated as a show place for toxics education, toured Strong Memorial Hospital to learn how they eliminated mercury and are using different technologies to reduce other chemicals and hospital waste, spoke at a Green Printing Workshop at Rochester Institute of Technology, and visited a company that successfully reduced thousands of pounds of ink through the Green Supplier's Network.

EPA Wins Award on Design for the Environment (DfE) Program - The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. has awarded EPA its 2007 Design for Recycling Award. The DfE program was chosen for its overall leadership in creating innovative design partnerships, and its dedication to empowering businesses and industry sectors to incorporate environmental considerations into decision-making processes. The award was accepted by Assistant Administrator Jim Gulliford on April 21, 2007 in New Orleans.

Lead in Toy Jewelry - EPA and the Sierra Club reached a settlement on April 13 under which the Agency will take targeted actions to complement numerous other measures EPA has taken, along with its federal and state partners, to protect children from lead exposure. EPA will continue to work with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to address lead in children's products, and the EPA actions are in support of CPSC's ongoing program.

Asbestos Guidance for Automotive Workers - EPA has released a brochure entitled, Current Best Practices for Preventing Asbestos Exposure Among Brake and Clutch Repair Workers. The brochure is intended to provide information for automotive professionals and home mechanics on preventing exposure to brake and clutch dust that may contain asbestos fibers. Asbestos exposure has been associated with serious health problems such as asbestosis or lung cancer. En español.

Previous Highlights