Real-Life Communication
You're an industrial chemist working for the rather reckless
owner of a fertilizer manufacturing company. It's your job to test the
chemicals used in fertilizer products to ensure they're safe, effective
and environmentally sound. You've got your work cut out for you.
The
owner of the company is constantly at you to cut corners. To top it all off,
the manager's son fancies himself a bit of a chemist and he's constantly
bringing in ideas for new chemical products he's come up with in his
garage laboratory. While the son's ideas are creative, they're not
always safe.
Today, you've really got a sticky situation on your
hands. The owner's son has discovered a catalyst-based chemical, which
looks fairly effective. The owner wants to start using it in his fertilizers
immediately. Since catalysts often create dangerous byproducts, and the owner's
son is known for failing to properly test the safety of things, you're
happy to tell them both the new chemical will have to wait at least 90 days.
"It's
Environmental Protection Agency legislation," you say. They don't believe
you, so you have to go dig out a text that explains the legislation. Unfortunately,
this doesn't seem to help, so you decide to explain it to them. Read
the information below.
Toxic Substances Control Act
Under
section 5 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), any person who intends
to manufacture or import a new chemical substance or mixture containing such
a substance for commercial purposes must submit a pre-manufacture notice at
least 90 days prior to manufacture or import.
The Office of Pollution
Prevention and Toxics has grouped PMN chemicals with shared chemical and toxicological
properties into categories so that both PMN submitters and EPA reviewers can
benefit from the accumulated data and past decisional precedents, and reviews
can be facilitated.
If, based on an assessment of the potential exposures
and releases associated with the new chemical, the EPA concludes that the
new substance may pose an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment,
testing and restrictions may be required.
That's
what the EPA says, but how do you say it to the owner and his son?