Voluntary EPA Program Fails to Protect Children from Chemicals

By Evan Dick

The inspector general for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Arthur Elkins, Jr., has issued a report finding that the agency’s Voluntary Children’s Chemical Evaluation Program did not protect children from exposure to harmful chemicals. The program, initiated under the Clinton administration and slowly dismantled in recent years, relied on voluntary reporting by industry.

Elkins points out that even if industry had cooperated in reporting chemicals present in consumer goods that could harm children, some well-known chemicals of concern such as bisphenol-A (BPA) have been left out of the piloting phase of the programs development, further weakening it.

“EPA has not demonstrated that it can achieve children’s health goals with a voluntary program,” he wrote, adding that EPA still “lacks an active children-specific chemical management program or framework.” The report outlines a significant failure on the part of EPA to protect children from harmful chemicals in consumer products, and calls for more aggressive, non-voluntary regulatory measures.