TSCA Work Plan Chemicals: Methods Document and 2014 Update
Author:
US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics
Date Published:
2/2012, 10/2014
Description:
The 2012 TSCA Work Plan for Chemical Assessments identified 83 chemicals for assessment by EPA as part of its chemical safety program. The screening process for identifying these chemicals is based on a combination of hazard, exposure (including via uses), and persistence and bioaccumulation characteristics, and is described in the TSCA Work Plan Chemicals Methods Document. The Agency
continues to use this process, which focuses on chemicals that meet one or more of the following
factors: 1) Potential concern for children’s health (for example, because of reproductive or developmental effects) 2) Neurotoxic effects 3) Persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic 4) Probable or known carcinogens 5) Used in children’s products or in products to which children may be highly exposed 6) Detected in biomonitoring programs. EPA updated the TSCA Work Plan for Chemical Assessments by using more recent information submitted in 2012 under the Chemical Data Reporting Rule (CDR) and data reported in 2011 to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). These data were used to update the exposure ranking for the 345 existing chemicals that were generated under the two-step screening process used in the 2012 TSCA Work Plan for Chemical Assessments. In 2012, the Agency used several sources to identify chemicals meeting prioritization factor criteria as potential candidates for review; a total of 1,235 chemicals were identified. This group was screened to determine if any chemicals should be excluded because they are not subject to TSCA or there was already significant regulation under TSCA, or due to radioactivity, complex process streams, natural occurrence, or other properties. After these chemicals were excluded, 345 chemicals remained as potential candidates and entered the second stage of the Work Plan screening, which scored them under three characteristics: hazard, exposure, and potential for persistence and bioaccumulation. In addition to re-screening the 345 chemicals identified in 2012, EPA used the methodology developed for the TSCA Work Plan for Chemical Assessments to screen the Action Plan chemicals, which were not part of the 2012 TSCA Work Plan for Chemical Assessments, as well as two chemical flame retardants identified during EPA’s development of a flame retardant strategy. Based on this assessment, EPA is removing 15 of the original chemicals in the TSCA Work Plan for Chemical Assessments, consolidating one chemical, and adding 23 chemicals to the 2014 update to the TSCA Work Plan for Chemical Assessments, including five Action Plan chemicals or groups. The TSCA Work Plan for Chemical Assessments: 2014 Update contains 90 chemicals. This document contains the TSCA Work Plan Chemicals from 2012 and the TSCA Update from 2014.
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