Safer Chemicals policy watch: June 2018

Two environmental policies Scott Pruitt was dismantling this week
The EPA is undergoing huge changes in how they evaluate the costs and benefits of environmental regulations, as well as how they measure environmental health hazards from toxic pollutants.

The chemical industry scores a big win at the EPA
Chemical regulation at the EPA is shifting as the agency begins to focus exclusively on harm caused by direct exposure to a substance and ignore any potential exposure from contaminated air, ground, or water.

Practitioner insights: EPA’s flawed ‘secret science’ plan puts good science at risk
New EPA regulation would bar the use of scientific data to inform regulation to protect human health unless it is made transparent and available to the public, a costly and potentially prohibitive requirement for scientists.

U.S., Japan decline to sign G7 agreement to reduce plastic waste in oceans
Despite the growing urgency to mitigate the amount of plastic waste in our oceans, the United States and Japan did not sign a recent G7 agreement to commit to cutting down on single-use plastics.