Richard E. Engler, Ph.D., Quoted by Bloomberg Law in Article “EPA to gauge impact of TSCA new chemicals outreach initiative”

On April 4, 2023, Bloomberg Law quoted Richard E. Engler, Ph.D., Director of Chemistry, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C^®), regarding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) process for reviewing new chemicals.

Chemical manufacturers should anticipate the EPA’s reviews of new chemicals to take a year or more, not the 90-180 days mandated by the law, said Richard Engler, director of chemistry at Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.

Yet “the agency is improving,” he said.

TSCA doesn’t require chemical manufacturers to provide toxicity or exposure data for new chemicals they ask the EPA to approve. But there’s a lot of information, including whether workers would be exposed to a new chemical as its made and what would happen if it were discharged into water, that they can provide, said Engler, who works with the TSCA New Chemicals Coalition that Bergeson & Campbell counsels.

It’s incumbent on each company to provide the agency as complete a package of information as possible describing the new chemical it wants to make, he said. “We know how backed up EPA is. It’s on us to make sure it doesn’t get more backed up,” he said.

[…]

Chemical manufacturers also would like the EPA to clarify how it interprets the safety standard TSCA set for new chemicals, Engler said.

The law states that a chemical should be “not likely to present unreasonable risk” under the “intended, known, or reasonably foreseen” ways it will be made, processed, distributed in commerce, used, and disposed of.

See – https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/chemical-reviews-are-faster-but-more-effort-planned-epa-says (subscription required)