Department of Ecology
Committees, Boards, and Workgroups

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.

To stay up to date with our Phthalates AP project, subscribe to the email list.

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Phthalates Action Plan Advisory Committee members

• Eileen Conneely, American Chemistry Council
• Tim Shestek, American Chemistry Council
• Peter Godlewski, Association of Washington Business
• Pat Harmon, BASF
• Dana de Leon, City of Tacoma
• Mary Henley, City of Tacoma
• Nicole Thomsen, Collaborative on Health and the Environment & Snohomish County Health District
• David Adenuga, ExxonMobil Chemical Company
• Nsilo Berry, Healthy Building Network
• Teresa McGrath, Healthy Building Network
• Carrie Brown, Household and Commercial Products Association
• Ashley Evans, King County Hazardous Waste Management Program
• Tony Garcia, Multicare Health System
• Larry Dunn, National Tribal Toxics Council
• Amy Ohlinger, Northwest Biosolids
• Daniel Thompson, Northwest Biosolids Board
• Sheela Sathyanarayana, Seattle Children's Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit
• Shirlee Tan, Public Health Seattle King County
• Mike LaScuola, Spokane Regional Health District
• Erika Schreder, Toxic-Free Future
• Laurie Valeriano, Toxic-Free Future
• Grant Nelson, True North Public Affairs (Representing the American Chemistry Council)
• Dom DeCaria, Vinyl Institute
• Cristina Indiveri, Vizient
• Jody Snyder, Washington Refuse and Recycling Association
• Heather Trim, Zero Waste Washington
• Lauren Heine, ChemForward

Other phthalates resources

• Washington Department of Ecology's phthalates webpage.
• Washington Department of Health's BPA and phthalates webpage.
• Washington Department of Ecology's Safer Products for Washington program, implementing RCW 70A.350.
• 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