Abt Associates assessed the potential costs and benefits of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Environmental Hazard Communication (EHC) regulation.  This regulation requires chemical manufacturers and distributors to tell employees and customers about their products' environmental hazards in addition to the worker safety information currently provided.  Our analysis evaluated six regulatory options. We conducted a cost analysis of the EHC regulation by developing 14 cost elements reflecting the steps required for companies to comply.  We calculated the value of each cost element using data that included:

• Number of regulated chemical substances and mixtures
• Number of regulated manufacturing establishments
• Number of affected manufacturing employees
• Amount of time spent by industry to comply with the regulation
• Percent of regulated chemicals and mixtures for which environmental hazard information is available

To analyze regulatory benefits, we interviewed chemical manufacturers, emergency response groups, and environmental groups about their potential use of EHC data and how they might advocate for changes in industry.