The Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA) – amended in 2016 by the Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (LCSA) – is the primary U.S. federal law governing the commercial use of chemicals that pose risks to human health and the environment.   

A predictable, cost-effective, science-based federal chemical regulatory program is important to IPC’s members, many of whom use chemicals to manufacture electronic products for crucial industries and applications.

Chemical Risk Evaluations

The U.S. EPA is developing new risk evaluations for certain “high-priority” chemicals, and several of them – flame retardants, phthalates, solvents, and formaldehyde – are relevant to electronics manufacturing. The purpose of a risk evaluation is to determine whether a chemical presents an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment under normal conditions of use.

In April 2020, EPA released “scoping documents” for 20 chemicals, identifying each one’s conditions of use, hazards, exposures, and potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations. Scoping is a crucial early step in the process of deciding how EPA will regulate or mitigate unreasonable risks.

• This IPC chart lists all the high-priority substances; links to the relevant draft scoping documents; and provides information about the substances’ possible uses in electronics. If your company manufactures, imports, processes, distributes, uses, or disposes of any of these chemical substances, then you may want to engage in the regulatory processes affecting them.

U.S. EPA “Fees Rule”

Manufacturers and importers of “high-priority substances” and importers of articles containing these substances may be obligated to pay fees to defray the U.S. EPA’s costs for administration of TSCA. Many companies may be unaware of these potential fee obligations, especially importers of articles that contain HP substances by design or as byproducts or impurities.

A public comment period that ended in June 2020 allowed companies to self-identify as manufacturers potentially subject to the fees rule, and allowed those who were incorrectly listed in the preliminary lists to use the Chemical Data Exchange (CDX) system to remove their listing.

The EPA intends to publish the final list of companies obligated to pay fees concurrently with the final scope documents for the 20 high-priority chemical substances (see above).

As advocated for by IPC, on March 25, 2020, EPA confirmed it is exploring potential exemptions to the Fees Rule for manufacturers that import articles containing high-priority substances or those who produce them as impurities or byproducts. The EPA is also providing a “no action assurance” for such manufacturers, meaning it will not pursue enforcement action regarding violations of the self-identification obligations.

Changes to TSCA CDR Requirements

On March 17, 2020, EPA issued a prepublication notice of its final rule amending the TSCA Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) requirements. The CDR rule requires manufacturers and importers of certain chemical substances listed under the TSCA Chemical Substance Inventory to report data to the EPA every four years. In a separate prepublication notice, the EPA also announced they would be extending the CDR submission period, scheduled to begin June 1, to end on November 30 instead of September 30. The EPA also will provide data reporters with the opportunity to test and comment on the updated e-CDR web reporting tool prior to the submission period.

U.S. Chemical Data Reporting Period Open through November 30, 2020

June 1, 2020 marked the opening of the EPA’s Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) submission period, which will run through November 30. The CDR rule requires manufacturers and importers of certain chemical substances listed under the TSCA Chemical Substance Inventory to report data to the EPA every four years.

Meanwhile, in a separate rulemaking, the EPA also updated definitions for small manufacturers that are exempt from reporting. To report using e-CDRweb, you must first register with the Chemical Data Exchange (CDX) system. Let us know if you have any questions as your company goes through the reporting process.