Hazard : A new danger
Ales Bartl , partner , and David Fischer , counsel , at Keller and Heckman , look at how TSCA and REACH are moving closer to a hazard-based approach to managing chemicals
The US Toxic Substances Control Act ( TSCA ) sets forth a riskbased approach to chemical evaluation and potential regulation . In 2022 , however , the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) announced a ‘ whole chemical ’ approach to chemical evaluation , which jettisons the prior , entirely riskbased approach .
EU REACH , meanwhile , has always been based on a whole chemical approach , combining hazard and risk . However , the upcoming revision of REACH , as well as of surrounding EU legislation , will further strengthen the hazard element .
TSCA
In 2016 , 40 years since its original passage in 1976 , Congress dramatically amended TSCA through the passage of the Frank R . Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the
21st Century Act . These amendments set in motion an unprecedented and sustained scientific scrutiny of chemicals in commerce by the EPA . The agency , these stated , must “ prioritize chemicals for a multi-year intensive risk evaluation process to determine whether a chemical substance presents an unreasonable risk […] under the conditions of use ”. In promulgating the risk evaluation regulations in 2017 , the EPA
36 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981