Chemical Law’s Worker Safeguards Ditched by EPA, Advocates Say

The EPA allowed a new ingredient for wood panel glues to be sold in December despite the potential that the compound might cause cancer.

It also let on the market a separate new paint ingredient that the agency’s own analysis said may potentially harm workers’ neurological systems and put their children’s development at risk.

These two cases illustrate a much broader “insidious” approach the Environmental Protection Agency is using as it reviews new chemicals, Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, an attorney with Earthjustice, told Bloomberg Environment. That approach fails to protect mechanics, construction, and other workers in dozens of isolated decisions ...