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*. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	11-P-0379
Office of Inspector General	July 21 2011
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- At a Glance
Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Why We Did This Review
We conducted this review to
determine the outcomes of the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's (EPA's) Voluntary
Children's Chemical
Evaluation Program (VCCEP)
toward meeting its original
goal and the goals outlined
under the Chemical Right-to-
Know Initiative (ChemRTK).
Background
Executive Order (EO) 13045
directed federal agencies to
place a high priority on
protecting children from
environmental and safety
risks. The goal of the 1998
ChemRTK was to give
citizens information on the
effects of chemicals to enable
them to make informed
choices in the home and
marketplace. ChemRTK
satisfied EO 13045 by
directing EPA to undertake
testing on chemicals to which
children are disproportionately
exposed. EPA accordingly
established the VCCEP pilot.
For further information,
contact our Office of
Congressional, Public Affairs
and Management at
(202) 566-2391.
The full report is at:
www.epa.aov/oia/reports/2011/
20110721-11-P-0379.pdf
EPA's Voluntary Chemical Evaluation Program
Did Not Achieve Children's Health Protection Goals
What We Found
The VCCEP pilot did not achieve its goals to design a process to assess and report
on the safety of chemicals to children. The pilot's design did not allow for desired
outcomes to be produced. Specifically, the pilot had a flawed chemical selection
process and lacked an effective communication strategy. Programmatic
effectiveness was hampered by industry partners who chose not to voluntarily
collect and submit information, and EPA's decision not to exercise its regulatory
authorities under the Toxic Substances Control Act to compel data collection.
EPA has not demonstrated that it can achieve children's health goals with a
voluntary program. The VCCEP is no longer operational, and the Agency has no
plans to revive, replace, or terminate the program. As a result, the Agency is not
meeting the intent of EO 13045, ChemRTK, or the VCCEP pilot, and there
remains no readily understandable source of chemical exposure information that
the general public can access to determine potential risks to children.
What We Recommend
We recommend that EPA design and implement a new process to assess the
safety of chemicals to children that (1) identifies the chemicals with highest
potential risk to children, (2) applies the Toxic Substances Control Act regulatory
authorities as appropriate for data collection, (3) interprets results and
disseminates information to the public, and (4) includes outcome measures that
assure valid and timely results.
The Agency concurred with our findings, indicating that work ongoing by the
existing chemicals program addresses many of our concerns. EPA agreed with our
recommendations related to improving its chemical selection process and
developing performance measures for children's health protection. EPA did not
explicitly agree to develop a workable data collection strategy for applying Toxic
Substances Control Act regulatory authorities or a communications strategy for
public information dissemination, but provided information on the program's
current activities. Also, no target dates were provided by which to assess the
completion of EPA's actions taken to address our recommendations.

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