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1 1 (September 12, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/goveitq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional ____ S.Research Service Background on Risk Evaluation Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA): Carbon Tetrachloride September 12, 2022 In 2016, the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (LCSA; P.L. 114-182) amended Title I of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA; 15 U.S.C. §2601 et seq.) to direct the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to systematically prioritize chemicals for risk evaluation. (For more information, see CRS Report R45 149, Title I of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA): A Summary of the Statute.) The purpose of the risk evaluations is to determine whether particular chemicals warrant regulation in terms of the risks associated with their manufacture, processing, distribution, use, or disposal. If EPA identifies unreasonable risk to human health or the environment associated with one or more of the elements of a chemical's lifecycle, TSCA Section 6 directs EPA to promulgate a rule to mitigate those risks. TSCA Section 9 limits EPA's authority to regulate a chemical under TSCA if another law may be used to regulate a chemical for the unreasonable risk identified by the agency. As amended, TSCA Section 6 directed EPA to select 10 chemicals for risk evaluation from a list of 90 chemicals that the agency identified in 2014 as warranting risk assessment. EPA based this list on a screening of 345 chemicals for potential hazard and exposure, and persistence and bioaccumulation characteristics. With more than 86,000 chemicals on the TSCA Inventory, EPA's screening approach was intended to focus the agency's resources and attention on a select group of chemicals for which sufficient scientific and technical information is available to suggest greater concern to human health or the environment. Pursuant to TSCA Section 6, EPA selected the initial 10 chemicals for risk evaluation, including carbon tetrachloride, in 2016 (81 Federal Register 91927-91929, December 19, 2016). Each chemical substance that EPA evaluates has unique properties, uses, and risks, which may warrant different risk management approaches. The process of conducting risk evaluations and assessing risk management options involves judgments about the reliability of available scientific and technical information. Aspects of this process and what information EPA identifies as the basis for justifying certain regulatory action can generate disagreement between the agency and stakeholders (e.g., industry, environmental and public health organizations). As EPA continues to implement TSCA, the agency's risk evaluations and related actions are likely to receive scrutiny among stakeholders. Congress may consider assessing EPA's implementation of TSCA, as amended by the LCSA, and the resulting outcomes from the Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN12011 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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