Chemical Management

The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (LCSA), which was signed into law on June 22, 2016, will achieve a more predictable and uniform federal regulatory program for chemicals in commerce, provide better protection of Americans’ health and our environment and support our economy and America’s role as the world’s leading innovator.

Meeting Deadlines

Under LCSA, Congress established tough but achievable deadlines for completing the rules and procedures it will use to prioritize, evaluate and manage chemicals in commerce. On June 22, 2017, EPA demonstrated a good faith commitment to meeting those deadlines for implementing LCSA in an efficient manner with the release of the:

• Three key framework rules that establish a strong foundation for implementation of LCSA:
  • Inventory Reset Rule – process for sorting the TSCA inventory so that EPA can focus on chemicals that are currently active in commerce.
  • Prioritization Rule – process for designating low priority chemicals, as well as the high priority chemicals that will move to risk evaluation.
  • Risk Evaluation Rule – process for conducting risk evaluations on high priority chemicals
• Scoping documents for risk evaluations for the first 10 chemicals under LCSA.
• Guidance for third party risk evaluations under LCSA.
  

By December 22, 2019, EPA must have risk evaluations underway on at least 20 chemicals.

You can read the final rules, scoping documents and guidance for third party risk evaluations on EPA’s website:
»TSCA Inventory Notification (Active-Inactive) Requirements
»Procedures for Prioritization of Chemicals for Risk Evaluation under TSCA
»Procedures for Chemical Risk Evaluation under TSCA
»First Ten Chemicals for Risk Evaluation
»Guidance to Assist Interested Persons in Developing and Submitting Draft Risk Evaluations