The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released an update of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory listing the chemicals that are actively being manufactured, processed or imported in the United States for a nonexempt commercial purpose during the 10-year “lookback” period ending on June 21, 2016, the enactment date of the 2016 TSCA amendments.

The update indicates 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, enabling the EPA to focus risk evaluation efforts on currently marketed chemicals. Further, more than 80 percent (32,898) of the chemicals in commerce have identities that are not Confidential Business Information, 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 the Agency 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. during the prior ten years. The agency received more than 90,000 responses from manufacturers, importers and processors.

For more information, visit https://www.epa.gov/tsca-inventory/tsca-inventory-notification-active-inactive-rule.

Posted by Helen Gillespie, Chemical-Matters.com