The Environmental Protection Agency should use new authorities under the amended Toxic Substances Control Act to protect workers and other at-risk groups, advocates say.

Environmental health and union representatives urged the EPA to protect many potentially exposed and susceptible populations during meetings the EPA held in August to discuss rules it must develop under the amended chemicals law.

Worker safety and protection from exposure to industrial chemicals on the job received particular attention at the meetings.

“OSHA isn't doing it,” Eve Gartner, an attorney with Earthjustice told Bloomberg BNA. Gartner said that OSHA is simply not updating and setting new permissible exposure limits, or PELS, to limit worker exposures from harmful chemicals.

Source: Bloomberg BNA