The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has proposed two rules in regards to how it will prioritize substances and conduct risk evaluation under the newly revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
The proposed rules will be a staple feature under TSCA as it will prioritize and assess the existing chemicals, and manage any chemicals that may cause a risk.
Below is an overview of the proposal:
Pre-prioritization: the EPA will narrow the pool of potential candidates to a single substance and screen it against criteria.
Initiation: the agency announces a chemical that will have a 90 day comment period.
Proposed designation: this is where the EPA will names a substance either high or low priority.
Final designation: once the EPA has determined if the chemical substance is low or high priority, they will need to have a risk evaluation if it is a high priority. If the substance is deemed low priority, the EPA will not begin a risk evaluation until new information leads the agency to revisit the substance.
The EPA states that this revision will not create a new method for risk evaluation, but enhance the existing way of evaluating chemicals.
For more information about the EPA please visit, chemicalwatch.com.
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