EPA Plastic Chemicals Review Lacks Typical Exposures, Panel Says

Daily US commerce and life exposes people and animals to six hazardous plastic chemicals far more than the EPA recognizes, according to scientists advising the agency as it decides whether to regulate them.

Still, the Environmental Protection Agency’s first-ever attempt to examine the cumulative risk of these chemicals used in thousands of plastic and other industrial, commercial, and consumer products has many sound features, the agency’s Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) said during a week-long meeting ending Aug. 8.

The EPA is reviewing six phthalates, chemicals produced by the tens of millions of pounds each year that are used ...