Read the full story in Chemical Watch. Hat tip to Mary Buetow of the Toxics Use Reduction Institute for the pointer. Check out their bi-weekly Greenlist Bulletin.
Three final framework rules under the new TSCA, as well as scoping documents for the first ten substances subject to risk evaluation, were due to be issued by the US EPA within a matter of hours as Chemical Watch went to press today.
The release of the documents comes on the one-year anniversary of passage of the Frank R Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act – and on its statutory deadline for actions that must be completed within a year of the law’s passage.
The rules are:
- the prioritisation rule, which outlines the process by which the EPA will prioritise existing chemicals for evaluating their risks, including the criteria for designating chemical substances as high-priority or low-priority substances for risk evaluation;
- the risk evaluation rule, describing how the agency will evaluate the risk posed by existing substances to determine whether they present an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment; and
- the ‘inventory reset’ rule, which lays out how the agency will designate substances on the TSCA inventory as ‘active’ and ‘inactive’.
See also:
- From the U.S. EPA, “EPA Marks Chemical Safety Milestone on 1st Anniversary of Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act“.
- From Environmental Defense Fund, “Final TSCA framework rules retreat from best available science“.
- From Natural Resources Defense Council, “Trump EPA Weakens TSCA Rules to Favor Chemical Industry“.
- Toxics Use Reduction Institute information about the law and the new regulations.