The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, a 2016 amendment of the Toxic Substances Control Act that strengthened the original law, mandates safety reviews of chemicals already on the market and new chemicals before they are allowed on the market. EPA uses risk evaluations to assess the safety of these chemicals and determine how to eliminate unreasonable risks to people or the environment through prohibitions or restrictions on their use. On July 26, 2018, EPN provided comments on EPA draft problem formulations for asbestos, cyclic aliphatic bromides cluster (HBCD) and carbon tetrachloride, which identify the specific conditions for their use and pathways of exposure that the agency will consider in conducting risk evaluations of them. EPN reveals critical flaws in the EPA documents and believes that the agency is setting improper precedents for chemical safety reviews under the new law.
Read a summary of EPN’s comments: Summary of EPN comments on TSCA Problem Formulations.
Read the full comments: EPN comments on TSCA Problem Formulations