The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has released its first update in 40 years to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory, the list of chemicals that are being manufactured, processed, and imported in the United States.
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 on the market. The USEPA says this information will help focus its risk evaluation efforts on the most relevant chemicals.
“It’s important for us to know which chemicals are actually in use today. This will help us with our work prioritizing chemicals, evaluating and addressing risks. This information also increases transparency to the public,” says Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, Assistant Administrator of the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
As recently as 2018, the TSCA Inventory showed more than 86,000 chemicals available for commercial production and use in the U.S. Until the USEPA’s recent update, it was not known which of these chemicals on the TSCA Inventory were in use. Under the amended TSCA, the USEPA was required to update the list and designate which chemicals are active or inactive in U.S. commerce.
For the less than 20 percent of the chemicals in commerce that have confidential identities, USEPA is developing a rule outlining how it will review and substantiate all Confidential Business Information (CBI) claims seeking to protect the specific chemical identities of substances on the confidential portion of the TSCA Inventory.
To download the public version of the initial TSCA Inventory, get more information about the TSCA Inventory Notification Requirements rule, or requirements to notify USEPA going forward, click here.