EPA Publishes Chemical Safety Framework Rules

Estimated reading time: Less than a minute

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released three final rules as required under the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act (LCSA) passed one year ago to reform and update the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The rules establish EPA’s procedures for evaluating and regulating chemicals in commerce. The new rules and other documents will affect not only chemical manufacturers but also airplane, auto, electronic parts, paint, and other manufacturers and their suppliers and customers.

The three final rules set the procedures by which the EPA — working with information and perspectives provided by interested and affected parties — will:

• Reset the TSCA inventory to only include chemicals active in the last 10 years
• Select chemicals as high or low priorities for risk evaluation; and
• Set out how the EPA will evaluate the risks of high-priority chemicals.

Additionally, the agency released strategies, or “scoping documents,” for the first 10 chemicals to be evaluated under LCSA, some of which are used by the electronics manufacturing industry. The EPA invited all interested parties to submit information about those chemicals to help it evaluate their risks.

IPC has been actively engaged during the passage of LCSA and will continue to advocating for our member’s concerns during implementation.