For the first time in 40 years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released an update of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory listing of the chemicals that are actively being manufactured, processed and imported in the United States.
According to a press release, a key result of the update is that less than half of the total number of chemicals on the current TSCA Inventory (47 per cent or 40,655 of the 86,228 chemicals) are currently available for commercial production and use in the U.S.
“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,” said Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, office of chemical safety and pollution prevention assistant administrator.
More than 80 per cent (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 per cent of the chemicals in commerce that have confidential identities, EPA is developing a rule outlining how the Agency will review and substantiate all CBI claims seeking to protect the specific chemical identities of substances on the confidential portion of the TSCA Inventory.
