EPA Proposes to Change How Chemical Risk Evaluations Are Conducted Under TSCA

A proposed rule published in the Federal Register on Sept. 23 outlines amendments EPA has put forward for its procedural framework rule on conducting existing chemical risk evaluations under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The proposed changes would rescind or revise certain amendments to the rule made in 2024 under the Biden administration. According to EPA, its new action is intended to “ensure that the procedural framework rule does not impede the timely completion of risk evaluations or impair the effective and efficient protection of health and the environment.”

EPA’s proposal seeks to remove provisions requiring the agency to consider every condition of use, exposure route, and exposure pathway “based on reasonably available information without exception when conducting a risk evaluation under TSCA” and to return to a previous approach to risk determination in which the agency determined risk based on each condition of use for a chemical substance. The agency’s current approach calls for a single risk determination on each chemical substance as a whole.

The new proposal also seeks to revise a provision regarding how exposure controls, including personal protective equipment, are accounted for in EPA’s risk evaluations and determinations. Under the revised provision, EPA would consider “reasonably available information on the implementation and use of occupational exposure control measures such as engineering and administrative controls and personal protective equipment,” according to the Federal Register. The agency currently does not assume that workers always use PPE when conducting its chemical risk evaluations because “EPA believes that the assumed use of PPE in a risk determination could lead to an underestimation of the risk to workers.”

EPA is accepting comments on this proposal through Nov. 7. For more information, see the Federal Register notice outlining the proposed rule.