EPA’s Safer Choice survives, diminished

After facing the threat of cancellation, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Safer Choice program, which supports the use of environmentally friendly and low-toxicity consumer product ingredients, will live on, though with less independence than it had. Under a new structure at the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, the Safer Choice program will go from being independent to operating as part of the office’s New Chemicals division. The program has a staff of about 10 people who may have their time split between Safer Choice activities and new chemical approvals. The Project 2025 report, a small-government policy framework published during the most recent election cycle by allies of now-president Donald J. Trump, named Safer Choice as one of many federal programs and services that should be cut. In early May, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced the redeployment of more than 500 EPA scientists away from research and efforts related to climate change and toward new chemical reviews. away from research and efforts related to climate change and toward new chemical reviews.The Safer Choice group was part of that reorganization, says Joel Tickner, executive director of Change Chemistry, a nonprofit promoting green chemistry. “Safer Choice was in Project 2025, and the agencies are pretty much following it like a Bible,” he says. “So there was an expectation that in the reorganization, Safer Choice would be eliminated.” Tickner credits Safer Choice’s reprieve in part to a vigorous campaign this spring by chemical manufacturers, consumer product makers, retailers, and public advocacy