Jim Cooper writes:
>Actually, Rich, the real issue was that information about
>chemicals was not readily available to the general public.
>Non-industry and industry toxicologists, medical practitioners,
>chemists and others use the structures of chemical molecules to
>predict how the chemical reacts and affects human health and
>the environment.
[...]
>EDF's premise of "toxic ignorance," however, is only true
>for certain populations (e.g., non-scientists).
I attended regulatory comment meetings on this issue for a long time before the HPV Challenge existed. Structure-activity relationships are not well known enough to permit the lack of basic health screening tests on chemicals. The EPA agrees, which is why they are finally forcing industry to do these tests.
Sure, I'm glad that industry is spending millions of dollars to test chemicals. It'd be even nicer if they had done that voluntarily before releasing them to the public.
The non-published reports that Jim Cooper refers to are mostly the ones in the TSCA docket, most of which aren't done with adequate test procedures. When I checked that docket I noticed that the businesses that sent in the reports often tried to claim everything allowable as a confidential business secret, so that the report couldn't be released. Some would even claim that their own name was a confidential business secret! Under TSCA rules, they are allowed to do this.
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