Biden-Harris Administration Takes Latest Action Under Toxic Substances Control Act to Protect Public from Exposure to Harmful Chemicals

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

58% : Over the past year, EPA has continued to improve the prioritization process by investing in cutting-edge software to review more information earlier in prioritization.
56% : EPA has also implemented improvements to its systematic review approaches as recommended by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) by incorporating additional data sources such as assessments published by other government agencies to identify potential hazards and exposures, clarifying terminology to increase transparency in the systematic review process, and presenting interactive literature inventory trees and evidence maps to better depict data sources containing potentially relevant information.
55% : EPA will accept public comments on the proposed designations for 90 days after publication via docket EPA-HQ-OPPT-2023-0601 at the Regulations.gov page.
53% : At this proposed designation stage, EPA has a much fuller understanding of how these chemicals behave in the environment and their potential hazards and exposures than it had at this point in the process in the previous prioritization cycle conducted in 2019.
50% : The five chemical substances EPA is proposing to designate as High-Priority Substances are:"The Biden-Harris Administration continues to make significant progress in protecting workers and communities from exposure to harmful chemicals as we implement the 2016 TSCA amendments that strengthened EPA's authority on chemical safety, " said Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Michal Freedhoff.
50% : EPA also considered more specific criteria such as the chemical's bioaccumulation and environmental persistence and whether the chemical is stored near significant sources of drinking water.
49% : EPA began the process of prioritizing these five chemicals in December 2023 and also announced that it expects to initiate prioritization on five chemicals every year, which will create a sustainable and effective pace for risk evaluations.
44% : In proposing these five chemical substances as High-Priority Substances for risk evaluation, EPA had to consider the chemicals' conditions of use and production volume or changes in conditions of use and production volume over time, impacts to potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations including children and workers, and the chemicals' potential hazards and exposures.
43% : "Chemicals Proposed as High-Priority Substances for Risk EvaluationAll five chemicals were selected from the 2014 TSCA Work Plan, which is a list of chemicals identified by EPA for further assessment based on their hazards and potential for exposure.
42% : EPA has conducted a preliminary screening and technical review of large data sets to more efficiently identify relevant information for prioritization and risk evaluation and can easily flag information that may be useful to retrieve later in the risk evaluation process.
42% : The public will be able to see which studies and what information EPA considered in its screening review for proposed designation and submit any additional information they would like EPA to consider via public comment.
39% : As a result, EPA now has a head start on risk evaluations.
38% : If EPA finalizes these designations, the agency will initiate risk evaluations for these chemicals to determine whether they present an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment under the TSCA conditions of use (the way the chemical is made and used), which the agency is required to complete within 3-3.5 years.
37% : If at the end of the risk evaluation process EPA determines that a chemical presents an unreasonable risk to health or the environment, the agency must begin the risk management process to take action to eliminate these unreasonable risks.
37% : That has also enabled EPA to make considerably more information available to the public a year earlier than occurred for the first 30 chemicals designated for risk evaluation under TSCA.
36% : If EPA finalizes these designations as proposed, the agency would immediately move forward with the risk evaluation process.

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