Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : EPA begins evaluating Five Chemicals
Today's KNOWLEDGE Share
EPA Begins Process to Prioritize Five Chemicals for Risk Evaluation Under Toxic Substances Control Act
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it is beginning the process to prioritize five additional toxic chemicals for risk evaluation under the nation’s premier chemical safety law. If, during the 12-month long statutory process, EPA designates these five chemicals as High Priority Substances, EPA will then begin risk evaluations for these chemicals.
EPA plans to prioritize the following chemicals for risk evaluation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA):
Acetaldehyde (CASRN 75-07-0),
Acrylonitrile (CASRN 107-13-1),
Benzenamine (CASRN 62-53-3),
4,4’-Methylene bis(2-chloroaniline) (MBOCA) (CASRN 101-14-4), and
Vinyl Chloride (CASRN 75-01-4).
“Under the Biden-Harris Administration, EPA has made significant progress implementing the 2016 amendments to strengthen our nation’s chemical safety laws after years of mismanagement and delay. Today marks an important step forward,” said Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Michal Freedhoff. “Moving forward to comprehensively study the safety these five chemicals that have been in use for decades is key to better protecting people from toxic exposure.”
“Most vinyl chloride is used to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic, which poses significant health and environmental problems that have been known for over 50 years. This is one of the most important chemical review processes ever undertaken by the EPA. I applaud the EPA for launching this review,” said Judith Enck, President of Beyond Plastics and former EPA Regional Administrator.
This step is consistent with a commitment from the Biden-Harris Administration to understand and address environmental and toxic exposures as part of the Cancer Moonshot’s mission to end cancer as we know it, and as progress on delivering environmental justice.
Going forward, EPA expects to initiate prioritization on five chemicals every year, which will create a sustainable and effective pace for risk evaluations. Prioritization is the first step under EPA’s authority to regulate existing chemicals currently on the market and in use – to evaluate whether health and environmental protections are needed.
source:EPA
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