US EPA Issues First Safety Determinations for New Chemicals Under the Amended TSCA

On July 22, 2016 the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) issued its first safety determinations on premanufacture notices (PMNs) for new chemicals under TSCA as amended by the recently enacted Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act. US EPA announced the decisions exactly one month after President Obama signed the Lautenberg Act into law on June 22, 2016.

In decisions posted to its website, US EPA determined that four new chemical substances were “not likely to present an unreasonable risk” to health or the environment, the new TSCA standard established by the Lautenberg Act. The PMNs for all four substances had been submitted to US EPA prior to enactment of the Lautenberg Act, but because US EPA concluded that the Lautenberg Act had “effectively reset” the 90-day review period for all PMNs, the agency had reviewed the four chemicals further under the new standard