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January 17, 2017

EPA Releases Proposed Chemical Risk Evaluation Process under New TSCA

Lynn L. Bergeson Carla N. Hutton

On January 13, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a proposed rule that would establish a process for conducting risk evaluations to determine whether a chemical substance presents an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment, including an unreasonable risk to a potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulation, under the conditions of use.  The process would not consider costs or other nonrisk factors.  Risk evaluation is the second step, after prioritization, in a new process of existing chemical substance review and management established under recent amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).  The proposed rule identifies the steps of a risk evaluation process, including scope, hazard assessment, exposure assessment, risk characterization, and finally a risk determination.  EPA proposes that this process be used for the first ten chemical substances to be evaluated from the 2014 update of the TSCA Work Plan for Chemical Assessments, chemical substances designated as High-Priority Substances during the prioritization process, and those chemical substances for which EPA has initiated a risk evaluation in response to manufacturer requests.  The proposed rule also includes the required “form and criteria” applicable to such manufacturer requests.  EPA posted a pre-publication version of the proposed rule on its website.  When the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register, it will begin a 60-day comment period.  This is the third foundational rule released during the week of January 9, 2017.  An in-depth memorandum on the proposed risk evaluation process, as well as memoranda regarding EPA’s proposed requirements for TSCA Inventory notification and prioritization process for reviewing existing chemicals, will be available on our website under the key phrase TSCA.