EPA's Toxics Office Faces Difficulty Meeting TSCA's 'Challenging' Deadlines

摘要

EPA's toxics office is grappling with meeting a series of steep deadlines that lawmakers imposed when they revised the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in 2016, a top official says. Work in the office "has been crazy," Iris Camacho, branch chief of a Risk Assessment Division within the toxics office said during a Dec. 11 workshop at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). "It's challenging because there are very tight statutory deadlines and we are working very, very hard to meet our regulatory deadlines," she added. Camacho's branch is involved with assessments of existing chemicals, those that were on the market when the original TSCA took effect in 1976, or which EPA has since allowed to enter the marketplace. The group has been focused on the first 10 evaluations of existing chemicals, which the Obama EPA selected in December 2017, triggering a three-year statutory deadline for their completion.