How Freeing Paris Saved EPA Money

EPA spends about $3 million a year on international travel. That’s not a small sum and we are working on ways to keep it to a minimum. On the other hand, I’ve learned that relatively petite investments in international travel can pay big dividends later on. Here’s an example.

We use a lot of chemicals in this country, but we don’t necessarily know a lot about them. So EPA scientists have been reviewing data on hundreds of high volume chemicals to make sure we better understand the risks these chemicals pose to human health and the environment. We regularly track how many chemicals we’ve taken a close look at. And, voila, through June of 2007, we have assessed almost 850 high production chemicals, well ahead of our original schedule (see graph). C’est magnifique! How come we are doing so well?

The answer is we went to Paris. Not to enjoy the Louvre or sip café au lait on the Champs-Elysées, but to rendezvous with scientists from other member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). EPA and OECD colleagues worked out, over a number of years, common methods for assessing the hazards from chemicals. Because of this, when the OECD assesses a chemical, EPA scientists are confident those results can be used in our own assessment here in the United States.

We freed up travel to Paris to allow these EPA/OECD tête-à-têtes. Is that an extravagant use of public funds? Au contraire, we’ve saved much more than we spent in taxpayer money by not having to do all the testing ourselves. But the pièce de résistance is that when the OECD produces results, we benefit because we identify potential risks to the public and the environment faster. That’s why we’re ahead of schedule.

Encore!