President Obama Signs TSCA Reform into Law

On Wednesday President Obama signed into law The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act.  The historic bill reforms the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA) which established the nation’s chemical regulatory system.

“We’d like to thank President Obama and the many bipartisan supporters in Congress for making TSCA reform a reality,” said VI President and CEO, Dick Doyle.  “Although this bill isn’t perfect, it represents nearly a decade of work on behalf of industry, business and consumer health and environmental advocates.  This new law should provide great certainty to American families of the safety of their products, while still allowing industry to innovate and remain globally competitive.”

For several years the Vinyl Institute worked with a large coalition of stakeholders to advance TSCA reform through Congress.  With the bill now law, it will take a minimum of five years for EPA to fully implement the historic measure.  The law does, however, establish aggressive deadlines for implementation and VI remains committed to ensuring the law is properly executed.  During this phase we will continue working with other stakeholders and the Administration to monitor EPA’s progress and proposed policies, procedures, and guidance documents.

The new law gives U.S. EPA new authority to review and regulate chemicals, along with mandating that the agency update its inventory of existing chemicals and create a risk evaluation process, all within the next six months.

Timeline of EPA Implementation

Key Provisions of the Bill