As part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA; Washington, D.C.; www.epa.gov) plan to enhance its Existing Chemicals Management Program, the agency identified 83 chemicals for further assessment under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Initially, seven of those chemicals were identified for assessment in 2012.
In June, EPA identified 18 more of these chemicals for assessment in 2013 and 2014. EPA intends to use the TSCA Work Plan Chemicals program to help focus and direct the activities of the Existing Chemicals Program over the next several years.
This month, EPA published the peer review plans for the risk assessments on the seven 2012 work plan chemicals. The plans, which form part of the agency’s peer review agenda, describe the focus of the risk assessment being conducted on each chemical, indicate how peer reviewers will be selected, how the peer review will be conducted and provide the timeline for the reviews.
As indicated in the plans, EPA will publish a notice in the U.S. Federal Register when the external review drafts of the assessments become available, and provide a 60-day period for public comment on the drafts before the peer review begins. Interested parties will also be able to present comments at the teleconference panel review meetings. The public can access and submit comments on the individual peer review plans for each chemical.
At the conclusion of the review process, if an assessment of specific uses indicates significant risk, EPA will evaluate and pursue appropriate risk reduction actions, as warranted. If an assessment shows no significant risk, EPA will conclude its current work on assessment of those specified targeted uses of that chemical. Over time, additional chemicals will be added to the work plan as more data are developed and more chemicals screened.