Lynn L. Bergeson, “Managing risk: what the EPA’s TSCA chemical use bans tell us,” Financier Worldwide, August 2024.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued final risk management rules under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) banning certain uses of two chemicals: chrysotile asbestos and methylene chloride.

The identity of these two chemicals is less important than the process by which the EPA concluded that the banned uses of these chemicals pose unreasonable risks to human health and the environment, and the nature and intrusiveness of the workplace and other restrictions the EPA has imposed while the bans take effect.

Even if an organisation’s supply chain excludes these chemicals, the administrative process and broad prohibitions the EPA is authorised to impose under the TSCA have enormous commercial implications for all businesses using chemicals, as most do. These rules offer insight into the future of chemical regulation, and this article explains why. As the expression goes: “It ain’t pretty.”