MILWAUKEE, Dec 21, 2008 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency has kept data about potentially dangerous chemicals secret, the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel says.
The newspaper said its analysis of more than 2,000 EPA dangerous chemical
filings during the last three years found that the U.S. department allowed
chemicals' names to remain undisclosed in more than half those cases.
In hundreds of the registered reports, both the company and its address remained
confidential.
The Journal Sentinel said the secretive EPA entries appear to be in opposition
to a federal law that requires EPA officials to publicly report any new data
regarding potentially dangerous chemicals.
Under the related EPA regulations, the federal department can only agree to
retain confidentiality for a company or product under rare circumstances.
Wendy Wagner, a University of Texas-Austin law professor, said the newspaper's
findings appear to indicate the agency has violated Toxic Substances Control Act
rules.
"The EPA has chosen to ignore that," she told the Journal Sentinel.
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