ISSUE: Inside TSCA

SACC Offers Mixed Feedback On EPA’s Phthalate Cumulative Risk Effort

Members of EPA’s Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) are commending EPA for some of the steps it has taken in its novel effort to evaluate the cumulative risks of phthalates under TSCA, but they are also raising concerns that the agency’s approach both underestimates and overestimates risks, as stakeholders have said. Their comments came during an Aug. 4-8 meeting to review EPA’s Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) draft risk evaluations for dibutyl phthalate (DBP), dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCHP) and di(2-ethylhexyl)...

EPA Touts LVE Progress In April And May, Though Major Backlogs Remain

EPA is touting its efforts to speed TSCA reviews of low-volume exemption (LVE) applications for new chemicals, citing “process improvements implemented by the Trump Administration” that led to a reported uptick in LVE risk assessments in April and May -- though other data complicate that picture. “Under the Trump Administration, EPA recognizes that improving the review process for new chemicals is critical to advancing the agency’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment, boosting our country’s economy, powering...

EPA, Petitioners Outline Schedule For Resuming TSCA Asbestos Litigation

EPA and petitioners in consolidated litigation challenging the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out six uses of chrysotile asbestos are proposing a schedule for resuming briefing in the case after the 5th Circuit last month accepted EPA’s withdrawal of its June request to further delay the case. In an Aug. 8 joint motion , the parties propose a Sept. 17 deadline for reply briefs from the petitioners, with 9,000 words of briefing to be divided among United Steelworkers, Asbestos Disease Awareness...

EPA Seeks Participants For TSCA Small Business Review Panels

EPA is seeking participants for a pair of small business advocacy review panels (SBARs) to provide recommendations on how the agency should craft TSCA risk management rules for formaldehyde and legacy uses and disposal of asbestos while still weighing whether SBAR panels are necessary for three other rules. The agency is seeking self-nominations directly from small entities that may be subject to the requirements of the formaldehyde and so-called asbestos part 2 rules, although other representatives, such as trade associations...

Observers See TSCA Reform Continuing Amid OCSPP Pick’s Moderate Views

Douglas Troutman, President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as EPA’s chemicals chief, brings a “middle-of-the-road” perspective and an interest in improving TSCA new-chemical reviews, observers say, though he is still widely expected to advance the Trump EPA’s deregulatory agenda amid staffing uncertainty and stakeholder clashes. Trump nominated Troutman , acting CEO and general counsel of the American Cleaning Institute (ACI) -- formerly the Soap and Detergent Association -- to head the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) on...

FDA Poised To Respond To Suit Seeking First-Time Limits On Phthalates

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is scheduled to file a response in the D.C. circuit next week to a lawsuit that represents the latest fight in a long-running push by environmentalists to revoke the allowance of phthalates in food-contact materials -- which many scientists say is the primary exposure pathway for most people. The issue of phthalates in food has been a point of contention in discussions over how EPA evaluates phthalates risk under the Toxic Substances Control Act...

Citing Ruling, PCRM Seeks To Toughen TSCA’s Limits On Animal Testing

Citing a landmark appellate court ruling, an animal rights group is developing a list of proposed legislative reforms that will strengthen TSCA’s current provisions on reducing animal testing and bolstering newer, non-animal testing methods should Congress make legislative changes to the statue alongside reauthorizing EPA’s TSCA fees. A source with Physicians Committee on Responsible Medicine (PCRM) tells Inside TSCA the group is looking mostly for changes to TSCA section 4, which discusses chemical testing authorities. The group is seeking...

Environmentalists, Industry Attack TSCA Cumulative Phthalates Assessment

Environmentalists and industry groups are criticizing EPA’s novel approach to analyzing the cumulative risk of phthalates, alleging that methodological deficiencies in documents currently undergoing peer review resulted in assessments that either understand or overstated risk. During an Aug. 4 meeting of the agency’s Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC), representatives from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Program for Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE) at the University of California San Francisco argued that EPA used too-low exposure data...

Industry Urges DTSC To Scale Back Plan To List Microplastics Under SCP

Industry groups are urging California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to scale back an ambitious plan to add microplastics to the “candidate chemicals” list under its Safer Consumer Products (SCP) green chemistry program, arguing in part that the plan’s “overly broad definition” for the material could actually hurt consumers. [We] urge DTSC to consider the scientific nuances of microchemistries and implement exclusions to the definition for safety and sustainability-driven innovations,” writes Dan Selechnik, director of environmental health and safety...

EPA Sends Revised TSCA ‘Framework’ Rule For White House Review

The Trump EPA has submitted for White House review its draft proposed rule to replace the Biden-era “framework” rule laying out procedures for evaluating existing chemicals under TSCA just days after it told a federal court it was “very close” to releasing the plan. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) received the proposed rule Aug. 4, according to OMB’s website. OMB review generally is expected to take around 90 days, but can be slower, or in rare...

ACC Urges Court To Reverse Fluoride Ruling, Limit De Novo TSCA Review

Chemical manufacturers are calling on the 9th Circuit to reverse a district judge’s novel ruling ordering EPA to regulate drinking water fluoridation under TSCA, joining the Trump EPA in arguing that the judge should not have considered any evidence beyond that in the TSCA section 21 “citizen’s petition” that EPA first denied in 2016. “Section 21 actions were meant only as a backstop to ensure EPA responds promptly to petitions for rulemaking. The decision below, regrettably, made section 21 litigation...

Battery Makers Withdraw Second TSCA Petition Over TCE Phaseout Rule

Battery manufacturers have withdrawn their TSCA petition asking EPA to reduce the Biden-era workplace safety standards in the agency’s 2024 TSCA rule on the common solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), as well as further extending a 20-year phaseout period for one company’s use of TCE, just days before the agency was slated to respond. The trade group Alliance for a Strong U.S. Battery Sector and Microporous, LLC, submitted a July 25 letter to EPA withdrawing its joint Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)...

Pro-Fluoridation Group Attacks Plaintiffs’ Cited Studies In TSCA Appeal

A group supporting community water fluoridation (CWF) is asking the 9th Circuit to allow it to weigh in on EPA’s appeal of a precedential decision ordering the agency to regulate drinking water fluoridation under TSCA, where it plans to criticize studies cited by plaintiffs that found risks from fluoridation while touting the practice’s dental health benefits. The American Fluoridation Society, Inc. (AFS), a Portland, OR-based group of dental practitioners, July 24 filed its request that the U.S. Court of Appeals...

Animal Welfare Groups Press EPA, Other Agencies For Further NAMs Use

Animal welfare groups are pressing EPA and other federal agencies to bolster efforts to develop and advance regulatory uses of new approach methods (NAMs) for testing chemicals and drugs, urging them to create more guidance and update research plans and lists of accepted methods to reduce the agencies’ use of animal toxicology testing. The Physicians’ Committee on Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is reiterating its call to the Trump EPA to reinstate a directive to bar its use of most animal testing...

Industry Faults DTSC Proposal To Accelerate Green Chemistry Listings

Industry groups are raising a host of concerns about the California toxics department’s proposed rules to implement a law to speed the process for listing chemicals under the Safer Consumer Products (SCP) green chemistry program, require companies to submit more information about chemicals, expand a petition process to list chemicals, and more. “With its regulatory authority over essential products that have critical roles in protecting health and hygiene, it is important for” the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) “to...

House GOP Appropriators Back EPA Bid To Revise TSCA Framework Rule

House GOP appropriators are directing EPA in report language accompanying the agency’s fiscal year 2026 spending bill to consider specific changes to the Biden-era TSCA “framework” rule that guides how evaluations of existing chemicals are conducted and revise the agency’s agreement with OSHA over workplace regulation. The report language , released July 22, expresses the House Appropriations Committee’s support for the Trump EPA’s planned reconsideration of the framework procedural rule, “specifically the Agency’s reconsideration of issuing a single risk determination...

Beck Criticism Of TSCA Deadlines Raises Questions Over Renegotiation

A top Trump EPA chemicals official is expressing repeated concerns about the “very aggressive deadlines” Biden officials negotiated in legal settlements last fall regarding a score of TSCA evaluations that were years beyond their statutory schedules, raising the possibility the agency may seek additional delays to the court-ordered schedule. In a series of recent public remarks, Nancy Beck, the principal deputy assistant administrator in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), has criticized the settlement agreements, noting that...

Georgia Company’s Novel TSCA Suit Aims To Reverse EPA’s CBI Denial

A Georgia company is asking a federal court to prevent EPA from releasing confidential business information (CBI) about a chemical it has manufactured for decades, arguing in a possible case of first impression that the agency’s decision to withdraw CBI protection fails to consider the long history of the chemical’s confidentiality. The case, Burgess Pigment Co. v. EPA filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, follows years of attempts by the company to rectify...

EPA Adds 18 Chemicals To Safer Choice Program List Touted By Trump

EPA has added 18 chemicals to its Safer Chemical Ingredients List (SCIL), which helps determine how products can obtain recognition under the agency’s voluntary Safer Choice program that the Trump administration is touting as a way to encourage innovation in the chemical sector. The agency’s Safer Choice program certifies cleaning and other products with ingredients that have met the program’s rigorous human health and environmental safety criteria. With the latest update, the total number of chemicals on the SCIL is...

Trump EPA Continues Appeal Of Novel TSCA Ruling On Fluoridation

The Trump EPA has followed through with the Biden-era appeal of a federal judge’s precedential decision ordering EPA to regulate drinking water fluoridation under TSCA, raising substantive arguments that the judge abused his discretion and erred in his view of the role of the law’s citizen petitions, while also offering a new standing argument. The Justice Department (DOJ) on behalf of EPA filed its opening brief in the appeal late July 18, following multiple requests for delays and extensions as...

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