Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)

The Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) is a federal regulation enacted by US Congress in the year 1976. The law provides powers to US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate the existing chemicals and manage the introduction of new chemicals into the US market.

Initially, all chemicals that are present in US commerce were considered safe and are subsequently grandfathered in TSCA as existing Chemicals. As for the introduction of new chemicals, the manufacturer has to give a pre-manufacture notice to EPA 90 days prior to manufacture or import of such new substance. Upon approval from EPA, the manufacturer can use the notified substance in the production process.

TSCA PBT (Persistent, Bio-accumulative & Toxic) Chemicals

In the year 2016, TSCA was amended by The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act. The amendment has brought significant changes related to Significant No Use Rules (SNUR), Chemical Data Reporting (CDR), etc., and given more powers to EPA to regulate the chemicals, which are posing an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment. EPA can now limit the use of substances and can also ban a substance from complete use under new rules.

On January 5, 2021, US EPA under section 6(h) of TSCA notified five new substance restrictions. As per the new rules, manufacturers, suppliers, importers who are placing their product in the US Market have to identify the restricted substance and notify the same to their customers.

The five substances restricted by section 6(h) of TSCA are listed below.

  1. Phenol, isopropylated phosphate (3:1) (PIP 3:1).
  2. Decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE).
  3. 2,4,6-tris(tert-butyl)phenol (2,4,6-TTBP).
  4. Hexachlorobutadiene (HCBD).
  5. Pentachlorothiophenol (PCTP).

EPA has set different deadlines for each substance to comply with new rules. Thereby the companies who are under the scope of TSCA have to deep dive into their supply chain and identify the presence of the above-restricted substance to their customers. If you are not a manufacturer/ importer in US commerce then TSCA regulation is not applicable to you. However, you have to report your product data to your customer who is based in the US, and thereby your customer can fulfill the requirements related to TSCA PBT.

TSCA PBT Compliance

The scope companies have to collect data from their supply chain and have to prepare a declaration of conformity or certificate of compliance presenting that their product is compliant with the TSCA 6(h) rule or there doesn’t come under the scope of TSCA regulations. The declaration should include the company logo, company address, company contact information, along with the authorized signature of the member who makes the declaration.

The status of compliance declaration should be one of the below-mentioned categories

  1. The product is compliant and none of the notified 5 PBT Substances are intentionally added to the products.
  2. The product contains one or more of the five restricted substance but are compliant due to exemptions.
  3. The product is non-compliant and contains one or more of the five restricted substances.

The stakeholders have to take immediate action to make the product compliant with the said regulations and companies who don’t comply with these rules may be required to pay a hefty penalty of up to 50,000 USD.

GreenoDix can help you in collecting data from your supply chain

GreenoDix will help to identify the compliance status on TSCA section 6(h) of your products through various feasible methods by providing compliance report/ declaration of conformity. We also expertise in many other global regulations such as Prop65, Reach, RoHS, etc…

Get a free consultation on managing compliance data abiding with frequently changing regulations in global business.

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