Know About The Extension On TSCA Reporting Dates

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is a US law established in 1976 that allows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to have authority over chemicals’ production, importation, use, and disposal. The primary goal of the TSCA is to safeguard human health and the environment from toxic chemical substances. The TSCA is applied to numerous chemicals, such as industrial, household products, and manufacturing. One of the major chemicals that are considered under the TSCA is the Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) which are man-made organic compounds as they are harmful and do not occur naturally. Hence, this blog explains about the extension on the TSCA reporting dates issued by the EPA. 

TSCA Section 8(a) – An overview:

The TSCA Section 8(a) is a provision within the TSCA act allowing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to collect all the necessary information regarding the manufacture, processing, importation, and usage of the chemical substances. This information plays a crucial role as it allows the EPA to assess the risks associated with the chemicals and implement the regulation accordingly. 

The EPA has finally asked the manufacturers to submit a finalized report and the recordkeeping information for PFAS under the TSCA act. This requires businesses who have manufactured or manufacture the PFAS or PFAS-related components since 1st January 2011 to submit the complete information regarding its production, manufacturing, exposure, hazards, and disposal.

Apart from adhering to the obligation, this act enables to streamline the resources and the quantities of the PFAS manufactured in the USA. Hence, any entities be it a  small or large scale industry that have manufactured PFAS since January 2011 should prepare a complete report and sent to EPA through the Central Data Exchange (CDX). Therefore, it becomes crucial for the supply chains, and manufacturing industries to prepare for the complete process as when the submission begins only 6 months of time will be provided for reporting.

Updation:

The pronounced TSCA Section 8(a) act on the PFAS is expected to delay the reporting period. Earlier, the reporting period was scheduled on 12th November 2024, but it is now expected to extend until 11th July 2025.

The reason for the delay in the reporting period is the budget restriction. It is to be noted that TSCA program under the EPA has a long-term resource constraint which has made many efforts to be delayed including the full implementation of the TSCA Section 8(a) act on the PFAS. In March Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 program the budget for EPA’s TSCA program was reduced by 5 million dollars compared to FY 2023, making the agency to make the decision to continue with the work in protecting the environment and human health from the toxic chemicals.

As a result, the agency need to stop its resources in developing the software that was mainly created for the maintenance activities and operations with respect to TSCA and CDX. This application is critical for the agency’s TSCA’s data collection which cannot be developed within November. Hence, this leads to the delay in the reporting by the time agency expects to develop a fully-functional software. Therefore, the data submission is expected on 11th July 2025, and reporting of the PFAS will be for 6 months till January 2026. 

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