On October 30, 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a proposed rule that would amend the procedural framework rule for conducting risk evaluations under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The proposed rule would change the way that climate change risk is incorporated into evaluations of chemical safety.
The purpose of risk evaluations under TSCA is to determine whether a chemical substance presents an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment, without consideration of costs or non-risk factors, including unreasonable risk to potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations identified as relevant to the risk evaluation by EPA (e.g., children, the elderly), under the conditions of use.
As a general matter, under the proposed rule EPA would generally not include future extreme weather events (e.g. hurricanes and wildfires) into the scope of risk evaluation as ordinary "conditions of use." However, if information reasonably available to EPA indicated that factors such as rising sea levels or extreme temperatures made worse by climate change were leading to regular and predictable changes in exposures associated with a given condition of use of a chemical substance, EPA would expect to consider those exposures within the scope of the risk evaluation.
EPA has specifically requested comment on alternative methods for considering potential climate-related risks in a risk evaluation under TSCA.
EPA is accepting comments on the proposed rule until December 14, 2023.