Understaffed Chemical Unit ‘Running on Fumes,’ EPA Official Says

Staff shortages are impeding the EPA’s court-ordered lead-paint analyses and its oversight of new chemicals, the agency’s top chemicals official told Bloomberg Law.

A dozen more toxicologists, biologists, and other staffers are needed to augment the nearly 70 employees in the Environmental Protection Agency’s new chemicals division, said Michal Ilana Freedhoff, assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention.

The single employee working on lead paint has other tasks to perform on top of the health and soil standards and lead-paint definition that a federal court ordered the agency to update, Freedhoff said. The U.S. Court of Appeals ...