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• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	17-P-0294
| l.-m ^	Hffiro nf Incnortor ^onoral	June 23,2017
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mm \ Office of Inspector General
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At a Glance
Why We Did This Review
We conducted this review to
determine whether the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's (EPA's) Office of
Chemical Safety and Pollution
Prevention (OCSPP) effectively
incorporates products
developed to meet its priority
settings, toxicity testing and risk
assessment needs. Our scope
focused on the computer
analysis programs (also called
"products") included in the
EPA Office of Research and
Development's (ORD's)
Chemical Safety for
Sustainability (CSS) Plan.
More than 80,000 chemicals
are currently registered for use
under the EPA's authorities.
OCSPP is making progress in
identifying the risks these
chemicals pose, but tens of
thousands of these chemicals
have yet to be evaluated.
To support OCSPP, ORD is
working to develop new CSS
products to improve this risk
assessment process.
This report addresses the
following EPA goal or
cross-agency strategy:
• Ensuring the safety of
chemicals and preventing
pollution.
EPA Should Assess Needs and Implement
Management Controls to Ensure Effective
Incorporation of Chemical Safety Research Products
What We Found
As part of its chemical safety research effort,
ORD works with OCSPP to design research
products that meet OCSPP's priority settings,
toxicity testing and risk assessment needs.
These products are designed to rapidly and
accurately support risk analyses, search for
chemical testing data across multiple
databases, and compare previous research
With management controls
that ensure the collaborative
development of research
products and prioritize
chemical safety research
needs, the EPA would be
better able to conduct faster
chemical risk assessments.
results to current risk assessments. ORD's CSS
development process enables OCSPP staff to be actively involved in customizing
the products as they are developed.
A 2014-2016 collaboration between OCSPP and ORD successfully produced the
Endocrine Disrupter Screening Program for the 21st Century. However, OCSPP
does not have management controls to ensure continued, effective collaboration
with ORD to develop and customize other CSS products. Further, OCSPP has
not conducted an officewide needs assessment to identify CSS product
development priorities, determine training and resource needs, and detect
challenges. Without management controls that ensure consistent interoffice
collaboration and assess CSS product needs, OCSPP is at risk of not effectively
incorporating products in a way that could rapidly improve how the EPA assesses
chemical risks to human health and the environment.
Recommendations and Planned Agency Corrective Actions
We recommend that the Assistant Administrator for Chemical Safety and
Pollution Prevention conduct a needs assessment that identifies and addresses
the challenges, timeframes, training and resources necessary to effectively
incorporate ORD products into OCSPP programs. In addition, we recommend
that the Assistant Administrator for Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention
develop and implement management controls that formalize OCSPP's processes
for collaborating with ORD to maintain current products and for developing future
products. The agency agreed with our recommendations and provided
acceptable corrective actions. All recommendations are resolved.
Send all inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391
or visit www.epa.gov/oia.
Listing of OIG reports.

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