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September 28, 2018

EPA Announces its Working Approach for Identifying Chemicals for Prioritization

Lynn L. Bergeson

On September 28, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it was releasing the approach it will use to identify chemicals that could be included in the next group of risk evaluations under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) titled “A Working Approach for Identifying Potential Candidate Chemicals for Prioritization” (Working Approach).  EPA states that the information set forth in this document is “intended to describe the general approaches EPA may consider to identify existing chemicals as potential candidates for prioritization,” and the ultimate goal of these approaches “is to identify potential candidates from which EPA will select candidates for prioritization, consistent with its regulations at 40 C.F.R. § 702.5.” 

EPA also released the pre-publication version of the Federal Register notice of availability of the Working Approach and “A Summary of Public Comments By Topic” (Summary).  The pre-publication notice states that EPA will be opening a public docket to accept comments on the Working Approach until November 15, 2018.  These comments will inform a public meeting to be held in early 2019.  Upon publication of the Federal Register notice, EPA will open 74 chemical-specific public dockets, one for each of the 73 remaining chemicals on the 2014 Update to the TSCA Work Plan for Chemical Assessments that have not received manufacturer requests for EPA evaluation and an additional general docket for chemicals not on the Work Plan.  These dockets will be open until December 1, 2019.  A link to the list of these dockets is available here

More information on TSCA implementation is available on our website under key phrase Lautenberg Implementation