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EPA updates TSCA chemicals list

Agency says new information will help it focus risk evaluation efforts on chemicals still on the market

Posted February 21, 2019

EPA has released an update of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory listing the chemicals that are actively being manufactured, processed, and imported in the United States. The Agency says it is the first major update to the chemicals list in 40 years.

A key result of the update is that less than half of the total number of chemicals on the current TSCA Inventory (47 percent or 40,655 of the 86,228 chemicals) are currently in commerce. EPA says this information will help it focus risk evaluation efforts on chemicals that are still on the market.

As recently as 2018, the TSCA Inventory showed over 86,000 chemicals available for commercial production and use in the U.S. EPA stated that until this update, it was not known which of these chemicals were actually in commerce. Under amended TSCA – The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21 Century Act – EPA was required to update the list and designate which chemicals are active or inactive in U.S. commerce.

More than 80 percent (32,898) of the chemicals in commerce have identities that are not Confidential Business Information (CBI), increasing public access to additional information about them. For the less than 20 percent of the chemicals in commerce that have confidential identities, EPA is developing a rule outlining how it will review and substantiate all CBI claims seeking to protect the specific chemical identities of substances on the confidential portion of the TSCA Inventory.

From August 11, 2017, through October 5, 2018, chemical manufacturers and processors provided information on which chemicals were manufactured, imported, or processed in the U.S. over the past ten years, the period ending June 21, 2016. EPA received more than 90,000 responses.


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