EPA’s Proposed Plan to Evaluate TSCA Inventory Chemicals

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), as amended by the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21^st Century Act, requires US EPA to designate chemicals on the TSCA inventory list as either “active” or “inactive.”

Initially published in 1979, the TSCA Chemical Substances Inventory has grown from an initial list of 62,000 chemicals to more than 85,000 today.  That said, before the Lautenberg law was passed last year, EPA was not required to determine which of these chemicals were still in production or use, and which were not (i.e. “active” or “inactive”).

New TSCA Chemical Inventory Reporting Proposal

To determine which TSCA inventory chemicals are active and which are inactive, US EPA  has proposed a “retrospective electronic notification” for chemicals manufactured/imported between June 2006 and June 2016 (approximately).

The proposal was published to the Federal Register on January 13, 2017.

Public comments on this proposed TSCA rulemaking are due before March 14, 2017.  

Prioritizing Chemicals for Risk Evaluation

In the January 17, 2017 Federal Register, US EPA issued a separate proposal to establish a risk-based screening process and criteria the Agency will use to prioritize the risk evaluations of legacy chemicals on the TSCA inventory.

TSCA Online Training

Be confident you can meet your EPA chemical reporting, recordkeeping, and management requirements under TSCA! The TSCA Regulations Online Course guides EHS managers through these complex rules—including how to use the TSCA Chemical Inventory; inventory, IUR, or “Form U” reporting responsibilities; Pre Manufacture Notifications (PMN); Significant New Use Rules (SNUR); management standards for PCBs, and much more.
 

Tags: chemicals, EPA, new rules, reporting and recordkeeping, TSCA