President Obama Signs The Toxic Substances Control Act Modernization Act

Since its passage in 1976, TSCA has been widely criticized—by industry and environmental groups alike—for its perceived inefficacy. When first passed, TSCA aimed to fill an important gap in the nation’s environmental laws, creating a comprehensive, but flexible, system for assessing and managing the risk from the roughly 60,000 substances then in commerce. As funded by Congress, implemented by EPA and interpreted by the courts, however, the legislation made it difficult for the EPA to require testing needed to assess the risk of substances lacking data or to control substances where existing data identified risks.

This gridlock prompted some states to develop their own criteria for restricting chemicals, resulting in ambiguous and contradictory state-level regulations. The TSCA Modernization Act aims to address these irregularities by creating a stronger federal regulatory framework, fixing flaws in the prior risk-based standard and reducing the need for (and, in