EPA Proposes Three New Chemical Rules
The rules will help create a new process of prioritizing and evaluating chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act
According to a report, the EPA has proposed three new rules that will create a new process of prioritizing and evaluating chemicals under the new Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
The new law requires the agency to evaluate chemicals grandfathered into the TSCA.
“When the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was enacted in 1976, it grandfathered in thousands of unevaluated chemicals that were in commerce at the time,” EPA’s press release reads. “The old law failed to provide EPA with the tools to evaluate chemicals and to require companies to generate and provide data on chemicals they produced.”
The new rules are composed of an inventory rule, a prioritization rule, and a risk evaluation rule. The inventory rule would require manufacturers and importers to notify EPA and the public of the number of substances in the EPA’s inventory that are still being produced. The prioritization rule would establish how the agency will prioritize chemicals for evaluation, and the evaluation rule will establish a process for conducting risk evaluations to determine whether a chemical substance presents a risk of injury.