TSCA Inventory Reset

Required under Section 8(b) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and established in 1977, the TSCA Inventory is a list of each chemical substance manufactured, imported, or processed in the United States. Currently, there are approximately 84,000 chemicals listed on the Inventory, but EPA believes that not all of these chemicals are necessarily still being produced or imported at a given point in time. EPA is developing the TSCA Inventory Reset as a vehicle to update the TSCA Inventory to more accurately reflect chemicals in commerce at the time of the update and thus keep the inventory current as instructed under TSCA section 8(b).

Reset Background

On March 18, 2008, EPA announced that it was considering resetting the TSCA Inventory. Following this announcement, EPA met with a wide range of stakeholders that included companies, trade associations, non-governmental organizations, academia, and state, local, and tribal governments. On September 24, 2008, EPA announced plans to proceed with the reset.

EPA's Proposed Approach

On December 8, 2008, a public meeting, announced in the Federal Register, (4 pp., 60 KB, About PDF) was held to initiate EPA's work to update and "reset" the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Chemical Substance Inventory. The meeting was conducted to provide an overview of EPA's proposed approach and identify additional details and/or issues for further consideration.

EPA proposed a "clean reset" approach (4 pp., 33 KB, About PDF), in which chemical substances not being manufactured or imported at the time of the reset would be removed from the TSCA inventory. EPA anticipates a process that would invite companies to certify that they have manufactured or imported specific chemical substances within an appropriate timeframe -- such as the three-year period was used during the creation of the original inventory. EPA would then remove from the Inventory those chemicals that had not been manufactured or imported within that timeframe. Stakeholders would be able to comment on a draft of the reset Inventory before EPA completes and posts the final reset Inventory.

Chemicals that remain on the reset Inventory would maintain their current status. A new chemical notice would be needed only if a company decided at a later date to produce a chemical that is no longer on the reset Inventory. Future periodic resets are anticipated to continue to keep the Inventory accurate. EPA solicited comments on its proposed approach to resetting the TSCA Inventory.

For More Information

Please visit docket number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2008-0807 to read comments received from stakeholders.

TSCA Inventory Reset

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