Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., cited a recent ProPublica investigation in a letter this week urging the Environmental Protection Agency to issue a final report on the health risks of formaldehyde. report, which is “science-based” and “as robust as possible,” adding that “the agency has an obligation to protect the public from this chemical.”
Used for everything from preserving bodies to gluing wood and making plastics, formaldehyde is so widespread that it causes far more cancers than any toxic air pollutant. A ProPublica analysis of EPA air pollution data shows that in every U.S. census tract, the lifetime risk of cancer from exposure to formaldehyde in outdoor air is higher than the agency’s goals for public exposure to air pollutants.
The EPA released a draft formaldehyde risk assessment in March and is expected to release a final version by the end of the year after receiving feedback from the public and expert committees. The upcoming assessment will be used to inform the agency’s future restrictions on the chemical. But a ProPublica investigation found that the draft report used unusual techniques and underestimated the risks posed by formaldehyde.
In one case, the agency determined whether formaldehyde concentrations in outdoor air posed an “unreasonable risk” — a level that would require the agency to address — not by measuring it against health-based standards but comparing it to the highest concentration Make a comparison. ProPublica found that the measurements the agency chose as reference points were a fluke and did not meet the quality control standards of local air monitoring agencies.
The EPA did not immediately respond to ProPublica’s questions about Sen. Blumenthal’s letter and when the agency plans to release a final report.
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The EPA is assessing the health risks of formaldehyde under the Toxic Substances Control Act, the main federal law regulating chemicals. The process typically relies on toxicity estimates calculated by a separate division of the agency. In the case of formaldehyde, the EPA released final toxicity values this August, decades after it began calculating them. In the interim, companies that make and use the chemical — which could suffer if it were restricted — have criticized the agency’s data and worked to delay its release.
Some industry-related members of the expert committee that reviewed this year’s draft formaldehyde assessment continued to raise errors in EPA’s toxicity estimates and recommended that the agency weaken those estimates in its final report.
In his letter, Blumenthal advised U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan not to pursue this path. “Throughout your tenure, EPA has remained steadfast in its important mission to protect human health and the environment,” he wrote. “I urge you to continue this commitment and issue a final formaldehyde review based on the best available science. risk assessment.”
