Toxic Substances Control Act

Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), a law passed by the Congress of the United States in 1976 that authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate or limit the production, importation, distribution, use, and disposal of chemical compounds found to be or suspected of being harmful to public health or the environment.

Passage and application

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was passed by Congress in September of 1976 and signed into law by Pres. Gerald Ford on October 11 of that year. In prior testimony before the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Finance, EPA deputy administrator John R. Quarles identified several chemicals whose release into the environment had been permitted without adequate testing, resulting in a threat to human health. They included vinyl chloride, a toxic gas that causes liver damage and cancer; chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), whose use as an aerosol propellant contributed to the depletion of Earth’s protective ozone layer; bis-chloromethyl ether (BCME), a carcinogenic liquid used to make polymers, resins, and textiles; and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a set of lubricants, heat-transfer fluids, and insulating fluids that cause liver dysfunction, dermatitis, and dizziness. PCBs are also suspected of being carcinogens. Quarles urged Congress to pass the TSCA to prevent such harmful chemicals from ever entering the public sphere.

In the late 1970s, under the TSCA, the United States joined Canada and the countries of Scandinavia in banning the use of CFCs in aerosol dispensers. Most of the world’s countries eventually agreed (under the Montreal Protocol of 1987) to end the production of ozone-depleting chemicals, a goal that was largely met by developed countries by the turn of the 21st century.

The TSCA also empowered the EPA to require adequate testing of new chemicals or existing chemicals used in new ways or found to be potentially harmful. For example, as a result of well-documented testing of asbestos, a carcinogenic mineral that had long been used to insulate or strengthen a wide variety of products, the EPA imposed tight restrictions on its manufacture in the 1970s. In 2024 the agency announced a ban on chrysotile, the last form of asbestos still used in the United States.

The EPA is also obligated under the TSCA to maintain a database of all commercially manufactured or imported chemicals. As new chemicals are discovered and reviewed, they are added to the EPA’s list, which now contains more than 80,000 items. The TSCA also mandates that manufacturers inform the EPA when they identify a “significant new use” that could possibly result in a substance of concern.

Exceptions

Some commercially manufactured, imported, or distributed chemicals are regulated under other statutes or by other federal agencies. The TSCA thus exempts pesticides, which are controlled by the EPA under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA); tobacco products, which are regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF); radioactive substances, which are overseen by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC); and foods, food additives, drugs, and cosmetics, among other substances. The TSCA also makes certain exceptions for academic research conducted for noncommercial purposes.

The Lautenberg Act

On June 22, 2016, Pres. Barack Obama signed into law the Lautenberg Act, an extensive amendment to the TSCA. Among other changes, the act mandates additional reviews of chemicals in active commerce, provides extra protections for vulnerable populations, permits optional additional testing, sets deadlines for EPA safety decisions, limits the ability of companies to classify safety information as confidential, and increases access to such records for health and environmental professionals.

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