US congress probes EPA actions against Denka chloroprene rubber plant

Washington – A US Congress committee has requested a review of a 2023 legal case brought against Denka Performance Elastomer regarding the public health risks posed by a chloroprene rubber plant in LaPlace, Louisiana. (related ERJ report)

The committee's call was based on concerns over an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision to forego a scientific review of the potential health risks posed by chloroprene.

In a 24 Jan letter to EPA administrator Michael Regan, Congress subcommittee chairmen Max Miller and Brian Babin queried the agency’s decision not to proceed with an investigatation.

According to the officials, in March 2021, EPA ‘region 6 office’ sent a formal nomination for the ‘office of R&D’ (ORD) to undertake a review of chloroprene, which had not been reviewed by the Agency since 2010.

The nomination, said their letter, was rejected “within a matter of weeks and chloroprene was not submitted for a scientific review” under the integrated risk information system (IRIS) programme.

EPA, the letter noted, linked this decision to an agreement between ORD and region 6, citing a July 2021 email in which the regional office “rescinded its nomination for a scientific review of chloroprene.”

The email allegedly went to "extensive lengths” to highlight region 6’s opinion that the current assessment for chloroprene “continues to reflect the state-of-the-science”.

The email also stated that regional office saw no concerns or questions about the “validity, quality, or scientific rigour” of the current assessment.

However, the committee said it had learned that “it was in fact ORD officials that authored this email sent by the region 6 office praising the current IRIS assessment and withdrawing the request for scientific review.”

“This is extremely concerning and could amount to a violation of the agency’s scientific integrity policy,” said the letter.

The committee also urged EPA to sponsor “an immediate scientific review” by an independent body for the cancer risk assessment of chloroprene.