 n paid advertising in USA Today,
the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) last month identified eleven major
U.S. chemical manufacturing companies that have agreed to bypass regulatory
delays and accept direct responsibility for health screening tests on their
top-volume chemicals.
 The newspaper ads, under the headline
"Santa Isn't The Only One Making Two Lists," also identified by
name six U.S. companies that have expressly declined.
Four months ago, EDF Executive Director
Fred Krupp invited the CEOs of the top 100 chemical manufacturing companies
in the United States to complete basic health screening tests on their high-volume
chemicals by January 1, 2000. "The public has a right to look directly
to you to provide basic safety information about your own chemicals,"
Krupp wrote on July 29, 1997. His letter noted that laws, regulations and
voluntary industry efforts to test chemicals over the last 20 years had
produced "so little visible progress" that "a direct, time-specific
commitment by each company itself . . . is the only reasonable course left."
Krupp's invitation followed a landmark
EDF study which documented that more than 2/3 of these high-production-volume
chemicals in the United States do not have even a preliminary set of health-effects
test results in the public record. There are approximately 3,000 chemicals
in the high-production-volume category in the United States (more than 1
million lbs./yr. produced or sold, for each chemical). A majority of the
80 companies responding agreed that more testing and public disclosure were
needed.
"The fact that eleven major companies
have quickly stepped up to take responsibility for testing their own chemicals
is encouraging," said David Roe, EDF senior attorney. "They aren't
hiding behind the excuses of the past, and they recognize that the public
shouldn't be kept in the dark any longer. This is leadership that the rest
of the chemical industry has no excuse not to follow."
Through its "3000 by 2000"
Project, EDF plans to keep the public informed as more chemical companies
decide whether to take responsibility for missing test data. "We expect
the message to sharpen as time goes on," Roe said, "and we will
keep to our year 2000 deadline." EDF is in active discussions with
a number of companies over their plans and, at the invitation of the Chemical
Manufacturers Association, is also discussing technical issues with CMA
to facilitate more companies' direct acceptance of testing responsibilities.
"So far we've found mostly open minds," Roe said, noting that
only six companies expressly declined Krupp's invitation, claiming that
existing efforts were already satisfactory.
"Your . . . initiative has already
focused significantly more attention on these issues," wrote Donald
W. Griffin, Chairman and CEO of Olin Corporation, in response to Krupp's
invitation. "It will result in accelerating the development of additional
data where needed and will improve the availability of information to the
public." Griffin stated: "we at Olin Corporation are ready to
participate . . . ."  | 
