The United States has made the disclosure of chemical information difficult

Chemical company worried about leaking trade secrets

Sinochem New Network News The reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in the United States is currently moving forward with difficulty. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has made great efforts in order to let more members of the public know about the health and safety information of commercial chemicals provided by chemical companies. This has caused chemical manufacturers to worry about it. Recently, this tension has filled the venue at the Global Chemical Regulatory Symposium hosted by the American Chemical Industry Council (ACC) and the Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SCOMA). The ACC pointed out that EPA's move has prevented TSCA from impeding the principle of scientific and technological innovation, and the American Cleaning Association believes that this move may tumble on the enthusiasm of companies to apply for chemical data.

Chemical companies are concerned that the EPA will disclose to the public the specific names of the patented chemicals, formula secrets, or business information for the production of these chemicals. These trade secrets are contained in the materials submitted to the EPA. This concern began at last year’s Global Chemical Regulatory Symposium where Stephen A. Owens, EPA’s director of chemical safety and pollution prevention, challenged the industry’s bottom line and asked manufacturers to voluntarily repeal some previously filed chemicals. The statement of confidentiality of health and safety research data states that this is an important step for the EPA to urge the information disclosure of commercial chemicals.

For years, environmentalists complained that the description of chemicals in a large number of public health and safety reports was too simple and the data provided was meaningless. According to the thousands of chemical health and safety data provided by TSCA requirements, many companies claim that the product name and nature are trade secrets. Since 1977, EPA has received 69,000 reports on the health and safety of chemicals, of which 22,000 have stated that the name of the chemical is a trade secret and cannot be announced. Barbara Cunningham, deputy director of the EPA Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxic Substances, said: "This is an astonishing number!" The industry also acknowledges that in some cases, chemical companies are abusing confidentiality statements.

To enable the public to learn more about the health and safety data of chemicals, in February this year, the EPA warned five companies that they would publish data they claim are trade secrets, because the chemicals involved may endanger health and the environment. In addition, EPA has persuaded 19 chemical manufacturers to voluntarily disclose product health and safety data. On March 24, EPA announced on the official website 42 health and safety data files that the company voluntarily abolished the confidentiality statement. Among them, there are 11 documents involving DuPont. Procter & Gamble also voluntarily disclosed the chemical information required by TSCA and abolished the confidentiality statement of the three reports. Givaten Spice, Japanese Technical Information Center, JSR Micro, National Aluminum, and Promerus, which were warned by the EPA in February, also agreed to repeal Privacy statement. Julie Floryridge, manager of Procter & Gamble’s Regulatory Affairs Department, said that public health and safety reporting in the past faced many problems. For example, many documents have only paper text and cannot be searched by electronic tools. At the same time, the composition and the proportion of some of the mixtures are protected by confidentiality agreements. In this case, the confidentiality statement needs to be reviewed by a lawyer before it is repealed.

Christine Franz, director of ACC regulations and technical issues, revealed that the ACC has established a temporary working group to address chemical information disclosure. She said that the EPA should carefully treat the disclosure of chemical health and safety data, and should protect data that is classified as trade secrets because it is important for innovation in the chemical industry. In some cases, the application of a chemical in a specific chemical formula may indeed be a trade secret. A TSCA clause states that federal chemical regulations should be implemented without impeding technological innovation. The ACC believes that the company should provide sufficient reasons for the confidentiality statement when submitting information in accordance with the TSCA regulations.