epa overhaul

On the heels of Lisa Jackson’s approval as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Government Accountability Office has released a report saying that the EPA is flawed in its ability to assess toxic chemicals, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal.

The report has concluded that the EPA lacks even the “basic information to say whether chemicals pose substantial health risks to the public. It says actions are needed to streamline and increase the transparency of the EPA’s registry of chemicals. And it calls for measures to enhance the agency’s ability to obtain health and safety information from the chemical industry.”

Stating that the EPA needs to be timely in determining health risks to the public but their system “is at serious risk of becoming obsolete because the EPA has been unable to keep its existing assessments current or to complete assessments of important chemicals of concern.” In the last year they completed 8 assessments with 70 uncompleted still pending. That is not fast enough for health and safety.

Strengthening the EPA has been recommended as a top priority for the Obama Administration.