The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976 was enacted to provide information about all chemicals and to control the production and of new chemicals that might present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment. TSCA defines manufacture to include importation. Therefore, importers of chemical substances must meet all TSCA requirements that are relevant to manufacturers.
This may include submitting to a testing and registration process intended to assess the substance’s potential impacts on health or the environment. TSCA exempts chemicals intended solely for export from the U.S. from many provisions of the act (except recordkeeping and reporting requirements) unless the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finds they present an unreasonable risk to health or the environment in the U.S. These exempted substances must be labeled “for export only” (or similar language).
Under TSCA EPA has the authority to track the 75,000 industrial chemicals currently produced or imported into the US. EPA repeatedly screens these chemicals and can require reporting or testing of those that may pose an environmental or human-health hazard. EPA can ban the manufacture and import of those chemicals that pose an unreasonable risk.
Also, EPA has mechanisms in place to track the thousands of new chemicals that industry develops each year with either unknown or dangerous characteristics. EPA then can control these chemicals as necessary to protect human health and the environment
Our Services
- Pre-Manufacture Notifications (PMNs)
- Test Market & Low Volume Exemptions
- Chemical testing placement and oversight
- Review and interpretation of chemical testing results for Section 8 Reportability
- TSCA Requirements Training
- TSCA Program Audit