EPA Says Little On TSCA New Chemicals Approach But Draws Criticisms

摘要

Top EPA officials Dec. 10 sought to detail a long-awaited, updated approach to reviewing new chemicals under the agency's revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) authorities but officials offered few, if any, new details and drew renewed criticisms from industry, environmentalists and other stakeholders. Environmentalists, for example, reiterated long-standing criticisms that the agency's approach maintains flaws that led groups to sue over EPA's 2017 draft document — arguing, for example, that it unlawfully narrowed EPA's scope of new chemical reviews by not holistically considering conditions of a new chemical's use with reasonably foreseen uses. They also charged it was unlawful because it allowed the agency to proceed directly from premanufacture notices (PMNs) to issuing significant new use rules (SNURs) — without taking the interim step of issuing an enforcement order under section 5(e) — to address any unreasonable risks the new chemical's uses might pose if unaddressed. Industry officials, however, continued to maintain that EPA's new process is not moving fast enough — pointing to the continuing backlog of new chemical applications — and the widespread imposition of SNURs to strengthen safety requirements. Industry has also raised concerns that requiring consent orders would further delay the process.