EPA released a report this week that highlights the accomplishments of a collaborative partnership between EPA, the chemical industry and the environmental community in making data publicly available on high-production volume (HPV) chemicals.

The report, "Status and Future Directions of the HPV Challenge Program" showcases the extensive voluntary participation by companies that have agreed to provide data to EPA on chemicals they manufacture or import, and outlines a preliminary strategy for how EPA will deal with chemicals that are not yet sponsored.

More than 400 chemical manufacturing companies, either individually or as part of 100 groups of companies that joined together for this program, voluntarily agreed to sponsor more than 2200 HPV chemicals by committing to make basic health and environmental data publicly available for these chemicals. HPV chemicals are manufactured in or imported into the United States in amounts over one million pounds per year.

The HPV Challenge Program began in 1998 after multiple studies in the mid-1990's showed that the American public lacked basic data related to high-production volume chemicals that are prevalent in the United States.

EPA worked with the Environmental Defense, the American Chemistry Council and the American Petroleum Institute to form the HPV Challenge Program.

12/3/2004