Three scientists resigned from an EPA advisory committee panel reviewing the management of chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Richard Dension, senior scientist for Environmental Defense, Joseph Guth, executive director of the California League of Environmental Enforcement Now, and Joel Tickner, assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, wrote a joint resignation letter to the National Pollution Prevention & Toxics Advisory Committee, complaining that the commission was slanted towards industry and failed to address the systemic problems hampering EPA's management of toxic chemicals. According to a report by BNA's Daily Report for Executives (subscription-only), the three environmentalists' efforts to look at larger management issues were stymied by the committee. "Our main interest in joining the committee, and we believe its essential mandate, was to examine the systematic, structural challenges EPA faces in assessing and managing chemicals under TSCA," the three noted. In their resignation letter, the three individuals said they had made recommendations that they thought would improve OPPT's management of chemicals. "However, NPPTAC has been unable or unwilling meaningfully to consider these systemic, structural problems or ideas of the kind we brought forward," they wrote. "One reason is that OPPT itself has shown considerable reluctance to acknowledge and confront limitations in its approaches to implementing its authorities and carrying out its chemicals assessment and management functions," they continued. "As a result, we have found that EPA discourages, rather than encourages, a full, open exploration of how it could approach these issues differently, even over the long term." The committee is weighted excessively toward the chemical industry, the advocates wrote. The story is also reported here.