TSCAblog®

On July 30, 2025, President Trump sent to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) the nomination of Mr. Douglas Troutman to be Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This position is the senior political position responsible for the regulation of pesticides and industrial chemicals under the authority of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on July 30, 2025, that it seeks public comment to inform its reconsideration of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) regulation for perchloroethylene (PCE). 90 Fed. Reg. 35858. EPA notes that as promulgated in December 2024, the PCE risk management rule addresses the unreasonable risk of injury to health presented by PCE under its conditions of use (COU) by requiring various workplace exposure controls, prohibiting certain industrial...

On July 23, 2025, Safer States published its takeaways from the 2025 legislative session on toxic chemicals and plastics. According to Safer States, in 2025, ten states have adopted at least 22 policies intended to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals and advance safer solutions. Safer States notes the following trends from the 2025 legislative sessions: States are leading the charge to prevent exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), toxic plastics, and other harmful chemicals....

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection (MDEP) began a public consultation on July 30, 2025, on a proposed amendment to Chapter 90: Products Containing Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS). The proposed amendment would add two designations for currently unavoidable uses (CUU) of intentionally added PFAS in cleaning products subject to sales prohibition beginning January 1, 2026. According to the fact sheet, MDEP “held discussions with the Minnesota Pollution Control...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on July 28, 2025, the release of a memorandum with additional context on occupational exposure data for di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP). According to EPA, the memorandum provides clarifying information on the draft DEHP risk assessment by providing a calculation of the number of workers and occupational non-users (ONU) exposed to DEHP for each Occupational Exposure Scenario (OES) identified in the draft risk evaluation. EPA states that...

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has published a July 2025 report entitled Update on Critical Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance Uses. House Report 118-121, which accompanied the 2024 DOD appropriations bill (H.R. 4365), requested the Secretary of Defense “to submit a report to the congressional defense committees to coordinate with relevant agencies, industries, and academia to research alternatives to defense critical uses of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).” The report...

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) announced on July 23, 2025, that it will extend the January 1, 2026, deadline for reporting products containing intentionally added per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to July 1, 2026. MPCA states that it is using its existing statutory authority to move the reporting due date. MPCA notes that with the extension to July 1, 2026, manufacturers will have had three full years since the enactment of Amara’s Law to prepare to report on PFAS in...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on July 21, 2025, that it is adding 18 chemicals to the Safer Chemical Ingredients List (SCIL), “supporting Administrator Zeldin’s commitment to transparency, innovation and safer chemistry.” The SCIL is a list of chemicals that EPA’s Safer Choice program has evaluated and determined meet Safer Choice criteria. EPA notes that the Safer Choice program “certifies cleaning and other products with ingredients that have met the...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on July 14, 2025, that it is extending the public comment period on its proposed method for ranking chemicals in the food supply by 30 days, to August 18, 2025. As reported in our July 8, 2025, blog item, FDA proposes to use Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to determine a score for each chemical based on evaluating the information about a chemical against a pre-determined set of criteria. FDA notes that this method is similar in...

As reported in our May 14, 2025, blog item, on May 12, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denied a petition filed under Section 21 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) seeking to prohibit the use of hydrogen fluoride in domestic oil refining through a TSCA Section 6(a) rulemaking. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) announced on July 9, 2025, that after EPA denied their petition, community and environmental non-governmental organizations (NGO) filed suit in the...

On July 9, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrew proposed significant new use rules (SNUR) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for 18 chemical substances that were the subject of premanufacture notices (PMN) and a subsequent TSCA Order. 90 Fed. Reg. 30216. EPA states that it is withdrawing the proposed SNURs because it withdrew the 2022 TSCA Order that was the basis of the rules on December 18, 2024. As reported in our April 17, 2023, blog item, in April 2023,...

As reported in our June 28, 2025, blog item, on June 16, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit requesting that litigation over its 2024 final risk management rule regulating chrysotile asbestos under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) be held in abeyance for an additional six months. Texas Chemistry Council, et al. v. EPA, No. 24-60193. According to the filing, EPA intended to initiate a new...

On June 23, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) extended the postponement of the effective date of certain regulatory provisions of its December 17, 2024, final risk management rule for trichloroethylene (TCE) until August 19, 2025. 90 Fed. Reg. 26453. As reported in our April 15, 2025, blog item, after EPA issued the final rule in December 2024, it received multiple petitions for an administrative stay of the effective date. EPA denied the requests, and the companies submitted...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on June 18, 2025, the release of its proposed method for ranking chemicals in the food supply. According to the document, the systematic post-market assessment of food chemicals consists of the following steps: signal detection, triage, prioritization, scoping, scientific assessment (safety, risk, and/or hazard), risk management review, and risk management action. FDA states that it will publish a full description of the process later in 2025...

On June 20, 2025, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a report entitled Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) and Alternatives in Hydraulic Oils and Lubricants: Report on Commercial Availability and Current Uses. The report examines the commercial availability and current uses of PFAS and non-PFAS alternatives in lubricants and hydraulic oils within the framework of the Global PFAS Group. OECD notes that it considered publicly available information...

On June 16, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit requesting that litigation over its 2024 final rule regulating chrysotile asbestos under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) be held in abeyance for an additional six months. According to the filing, EPA intends to initiate a new notice-and-comment rulemaking to reconsider certain provisions of the rule. The litigation, Texas Chemistry Council, et al. v. EPA,...

This week the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) posted Parts One and Two of its response to pre-hearing and hearing comments. Part One states that 67 commenters submitted written comments on the April 2025 proposed rule. During the May 22, 2025, hearing on the proposed rule, 11 stakeholders presented verbal testimony. According to the document, MPCA has reviewed the comments and “has identified some parts of the proposed rule that require clarification, or that the agency would...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provided on update on June 18, 2025, on the status of the December 2024 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) risk management rule for trichloroethylene (TCE). According to EPA, it is postponing until August 19, 2025, certain requirements already postponed in March 2025. EPA notes that these requirements relate only to the TSCA Section 6(g) exemptions in the final TCE rule. According to EPA, “[t]his will ensure that the timing of EPA’s...

On June 16, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of the draft charge questions for discussion at the upcoming Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) meeting to review all documents released thus far on the risk evaluations of five phthalates. SACC will review the draft risk evaluations for dibutyl phthalate (DBP), di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), and dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCHP), as well as cross-cutting documents related to DBP, DEHP, DCHP, butyl...

As reported in our May 13, 2025, blog item, on March 24, 2025, PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG) submitted a petition seeking an amendment to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) December 2024 final risk management rule for trichloroethylene (TCE). PPG requested an amendment to the exemption for the industrial and commercial use of TCE as a processing aid for specialty polymeric microporous sheet materials manufacturing that would allow PPG to meet an interim existing chemical exposure...