In a recent letter to Sen. Tom Carper (D–Del.), ranking Democrat on the Committee on Environment and Public Works, acting EPA administrator Wheeler pledged numerous assurances regarding the agency’s implementation of the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA).
Among them, Wheeler committed the agency to making all new pre-manufacture notices (PMNs) and associated information, including health and safety studies, available online via ChemView, starting no later than May 31, 2019. ChemView is the database EPA uses for chemical health and safety data received for specific chemicals under TSCA. Coinciding with new PMNs, EPA will also make available via ChemView all final determinations for PMNs, plus the documentation supporting those determinations. Furthermore, the agency promises to publish in the Federal Register a notice of receipt of all PMNs, test marketing exemptions (TMEs) and notices of commencement (NOCs) that have been received in the previous month.
Additionally, EPA has agreed to submit the agency’s recently developed methodology for determining how to collect and evaluate scientific research related to a chemical’s safety to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for review and comment. EPA will then make any feedback or recommendations from NAS available to the public and incorporate the academy’s recommendations “as appropriate”.