EPA finalizes TSCA rules

Abstract

It’s been one year since the Toxic Substances Control Act got a major overhaul, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been working diligently to meet several congressionally mandated deadlines under the revised law. On June 22, EPA finalized three regulations that will steer the agency as it puts the revised law into action. One of the rules lays out the procedures that EPA will follow to determine which chemicals were made in, or imported into, the U.S. during the past 10 years. The other two set out how EPA will prioritize and evaluate the potential risks of those chemicals. Implementation of the updated TSCA appears to be on track, but some members of Congress and environmental groups are raising concerns about conflicts of interest within EPA’s office that oversees TSCA. In particular, they worry that Nancy Beck, formerly an official with the chemical industry group American Chemistry Council, is