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American Chemistry Council Releases “State of TSCA Report: Fix Implementation Now Before It Is Too Late”

Reliability and Certainty in Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Implementation Critical

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Telly Lovelace
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WASHINGTON (May 10, 2022) — The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is urgently calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reverse misguided policy changes and get TSCA implementation back on track. As part of this effort, ACC issued today the State of TSCA Report: Fix Implementation Now Before It Is Too Late. The report contains six key problems with the EPA’s approach to TSCA implementation and six key solutions ACC proposes to get TSCA back on track. Chemistry is inextricably linked to innovation and scientific advancements needed to accomplish a wide range of our nation’s and the world’s goals. If the U.S. is to remain a global leader in innovation, TSCA implementation is critical.

Chris Jahn, President & CEO, American Chemistry Council
Americans agree with us that chemistry is essential.

“According to a recent Morning Consult poll conducted on behalf of ACC, seven in ten adults agreed that chemistry is essential to our economy and plays a vital role in innovation and the creation of products and technologies needed to accomplish a wide range of supply chain, climate, sustainability, energy efficiency, and infrastructure goals.1 But we can’t accomplish any of this without TSCA being implemented as Congress intended.”

“Six years after Congress overwhelmingly passed the bipartisan Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act to modernize TSCA, EPA is implementing policy changes that are out of touch with regulatory and economic reality,” said Dr. Kimberly Wise White, Vice President of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs, ACC. “We are urgently calling on EPA to reverse these misguided policy changes and get TSCA implementation back on track.”

Recent EPA policy changes include:

  • Ignoring the existence, applicability, and jurisdiction of other federal laws, and industry’s compliance with those laws, when it evaluates the conditions of use of new and existing chemicals
  • Improperly branding entire chemicals as unsafe—even when safe uses have been identified—instead of making safety determinations on a use-by-use basis
  • Making incorrect assumptions about worker protections and workplace environments instead of using real data and exposure scenarios
  • Lacking in their approaches to use best available science and weight of the evidence
  • Stalling reviews of new chemicals, stopping new innovations from being available for use and from being manufactured in the U.S.
  • Increasing fees with no accountability and no corresponding improvements to service

Promoting the safe use of the essential products of chemistry is a shared responsibility of manufacturers, the government and those who use or sell chemical products. TSCA can either be a catalyst to addressing our nation’s and the world’s pressing challenges or it can create an unnecessary barrier to progress. Implementing TSCA in the sensible, risk- and science-based manner the 2016 bipartisan amendments call for is the best way to catalyze progress.

“We’re calling on Congress to get EPA the resources it needs to administer TSCA,” said Ross Eisenberg, Vice President of Federal Affairs, ACC. “However, our support for additional funding for the TSCA program comes with the expectation that EPA will meet its statutory requirements. EPA must be transparent about how resources are being spent today and how future resources will be allocated within the Agency to achieve statutory requirements. This includes improving the throughput and timelines in the new chemical program, using the real-world data and current industrial practices when assessing workplace risk, and demonstrating that it is consistently applying the scientific standards embedded in the statute when making safety determinations.”

 

1 Morning Consult poll on behalf of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) was conducted between April 9-April 11, 2022 among a sample of 2210 Adults. The interviews were conducted online and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of Adults based on gender, educational attainment, age, race, and region. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

 

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American Chemistry Council

The American Chemistry Council’s mission is to advocate for the people, policy, and products of chemistry that make the United States the global leader in innovation and manufacturing. To achieve this, we: Champion science-based policy solutions across all levels of government; Drive continuous performance improvement to protect employees and communities through Responsible Care®; Foster the development of sustainability practices throughout ACC member companies; and Communicate authentically with communities about challenges and solutions for a safer, healthier and more sustainable way of life. Our vision is a world made better by chemistry, where people live happier, healthier, and more prosperous lives, safely and sustainably—for generations to come.