EPA Releases Update to TSCA Inventory
Wednesday, February 20, 2019

On February 19, 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it was releasing an update to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory listing the chemicals that are actively being manufactured, processed and imported in the United States, which is required under amended TSCA.  Some of the highlights from EPA’s announcement are:

  • A key result of the update is that less than half of the total number of chemicals on the current TSCA Inventory (47 percent or 40,655 of the 86,228 chemicals) are currently in commerce; EPA states that this information will help it focus risk evaluation efforts on chemicals that are still on the market.

  • As recently as 2018, the TSCA Inventory showed over 86,000 chemicals available for commercial production and use in the U.S.  Until this update, EPA states that it was not known which of these chemicals on the TSCA Inventory were actually in commerce.

  • More than 80 percent (32,898) of the chemicals in commerce have identities that are not Confidential Business Information (CBI), increasing public access to additional information about them.  

  • For the less than 20 percent of the chemicals in commerce that have confidential identities, EPA states that it is developing a rule outlining how it will review and substantiate all CBI claims seeking to protect the specific chemical identities of substances on the confidential portion of the TSCA Inventory. 

  • From August 11, 2017, through October 5, 2018, chemical manufacturers and processors provided information on which chemicals were manufactured, imported or processed in the U.S. over the past ten years, the period ending June 21, 2016.  EPA received more than 90,000 responses, a significant reporting effort by manufacturers, importers and processors.

More information about the TSCA Inventory update is available on EPA’s TSCA Chemical Substance Inventory webpage.

 

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