Significant shortcomings exist in the scientific basis of the EPA’s conclusions that most uses of a solvent and all uses of a group of flame retardants are reasonably safe, the EPA’s science advisers said in a new report.
The findings of the Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) “are a meticulous, unvarnished, and absolutely devastating critique” of the Environmental Protection Agency’s risk evaluations for the solvent 1,4-dioxane and the flame retardant hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), said Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, a staff attorney at Earthjustice.
The EPA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The sole U.S. producer of 1,4-dioxane, BASF ...