EPA to Unveil New Guidelines on Carcinogens

The Environmental Protection Agency is about to unveil a long-awaited plan for restructuring the government’s campaign against cancer-causing pollution, replacing old guidelines that listed certain chemicals as “possible,” “probable” or “known” carcinogens, and reducing the role of animal testing.

In new guidelines expected to be made public on Wednesday, the EPA proposes to consider the impact of chemicals on specific segments of the population--children, middle-aged workers, the elderly, or those whose immune systems have been suppressed, for example--and to rate the impact that specific uses of the chemicals would have in developing tumors.

An EPA official on Monday said the new standards have “the potential to have quite an impact on the way we look at chemicals.” But it was unclear how the changes would affect specific chemicals--or how quickly the impact would be felt.

“There will not be new data immediately. You can’t do this by vending machine,” the agency official said.

The program has been nearly eight years in preparation, but was said to have been accelerated by the Clinton administration to take advantage of the growing ability of scientists to assess the environmental hazards that Americans face.

At its heart, the program moves away from the long-held practice of relying on tests performed on rats, mice and other animals, which were monitored to see whether exposure to chemicals and pollution resulted in the growth of tumors. It will instead be based on data developed in real-life experience.

The guidelines stem from developments over the last 10 years that have allowed scientists to greatly expand their knowledge of how a wide range of pollutants, including those given off by factory smokestacks and fed into streams from water-treatment plants, affect human health.

“There is much new information available to us” that was not available when the current set of guidelines was developed in 1986, the official said, adding: “This will provide a framework that will allow the EPA to be more precise and give the public more confidence in the assessment.”

As a result, the EPA could develop guidelines for use of a pesticide that might allow workers, using protective devices, to be exposed to the chemical’s use in the field, while denying access to it for others who would be at greater risk.

“A chemical that is now considered a ‘possible’ carcinogen might be described as one to be treated as if it was a ‘known’ carcinogen for a particular group, say, children,” while others may be permitted to have limited, but protected, exposure, the source said, adding: “This allows the agency to take into account what we have learned about cancer and cancer risks over the past decade.”

Before they can take effect, the guidelines will be subject to public comment for 120 days, then reviewed by an independent science advisory board affiliated with the EPA.