The Washington State Departments of Ecology and Health prepared a Draft Phthalates Action Plan (AP) to identify the potential health and environmental effects of phthalate chemicals and recommend strategies to reduce or eliminate those impacts in Washington. We will use this website to share documents and project details with stakeholders.
What is an AP?
An AP is a streamlined and action-oriented plan that allows flexibility in addressing emerging chemicals of concern. It is a new process that is intended to be concise and focus on recommending actions for chemicals, like phthalates, which do not meet the persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) criteria.
APs do not follow the same process as chemical action plans (CAPs). CAPs are comprehensive plans that directly target persistent, bioaccumulative toxins or metals of concern, and they are required to meet all components in WAC 173-333.
The Phthalates Action Plan process
Ecology and Health worked with an advisory committee, including representatives from industry, a Tribal organization, local governments, environmental groups, and academia, to develop the Final Phthalates Action Plan Scope of Work.
We held scoping meetings with the committee in February, March, and August 2022 to develop the action plan topics. We held advisory committee meetings in October and November 2022 to present and discuss preliminary draft recommendations. These 2022 advisory committee meetings were open to the public.
In May 2023, we published the Draft Phthalates Action Plan and launched a public comment period to gather input on the plan. The input we received is available on the Phthalates Action Plan online comment form web page. We hosted a virtual advisory committee meeting and virtual public workshops to present the contents of the action plan and answer questions.
What's next?
Thank you to everyone who commented and provided feedback on the draft. We’ll be reviewing your comments over the next few months and will respond in December 2023. As we work on the final Phthalates Action Plan, the feedback we received during the comment period will inform our work.
If you’d like a copy of our response to comments document, please send us an email at ChemActionPlans@ecy.wa.gov with “Response to comments” in the subject line. Thank you for your continued interest in this project.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Biomonitoring Program phthalate fact sheet.
ADA Accessibility: The Department of Ecology is committed to providing people with disabilities access to information and services by meeting or exceeding the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, and Washington State Policy #188. To request an ADA accommodation, contact Ecology by phone at 360-407-6700 or email at hwtrpubs@ecy.wa.gov. For Washington Relay Service or TTY call 711 or 877-833-6341. Visit Ecology’s website for more information.
Contact
Kimberly Grieves Department of Ecology | Hazardous Waste & Toxics Reduction Program 360-522-2492 | ChemActionPlans@ecy.wa.gov