ACC Releases TSCA Progress Report: Five Months Later, EPA Still Struggling at Implementation
EPA is on the Wrong Path, U.S. Innovation and Commerce at Risk
WASHINGTON (October 5, 2022) — The American Chemistry Council (ACC) today repeated its calls for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to improve TSCA implementation. As part of this effort, ACC today released the State of TSCA Report: Progress Report. The progress report highlights the ongoing challenges with EPA’s approach to TSCA implementation and provides real-world solutions to help get TSCA back on track.
On May 10, 2022, ACC released its first State of TSCA Report: Fix Implementation Now Before It’s Too Late. Since then, EPA has double down on implementing TSCA. The Agency continues to employ policies and approaches that run counter to supporting use of best available science and supply chain resiliency. EPA’s failure to resolve TSCA’s ongoing problems continues to hinder American innovation and the nation’s ability to compete in the global market.
We issued the State of TSCA Report in May with the goal of strengthening the timeliness, transparency and objectivity of TSCA implementation and encourage policy and proposals that support innovation and the economy. We continue to call on EPA to implement some commonsense solutions to improve TSCA implementation.
ACC’s State of TSCA Progress Report spotlights EPA’s failed progress with implementing key TSCA policies including:
- Continuing to lack sufficient transparency for its “whole chemical” approach, including making unclear modifications to language from “majority of” to “substantial amount of” uses potentially allowing EPA to broaden its interpretation of which conditions of use justify its “whole chemical” approach, making the approach even more arbitrary
- Continuing to inaccurately assess worker safety with its No-PPE assumptions despite real-world data and exposure scenarios
- Lacking consideration of real-world uses and exposures, and failure to use the best available science and weight of the evidence
- Persistent delays in reviews of new chemicals and not meeting its statutory required 90-day deadline
- Calling on fee increases with no accountability and no plan to enhance program approaches, training or timeliness.
ACC’s State of TSCA Progress Report presents real-world solutions to correct the ongoing problems with EPA’s approach to TSCA implementation. ACC and our member companies remain committed to working with EPA officials and stakeholders to ensure TSCA promotes American innovation and strengthen our ability to compete in the global market. TSCA can either be a catalyst to addressing our global challenges or it can create an unnecessary barrier to progress.
