The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will formally designate five known or probable carcinogens as High-Priority Substances that will undergo a risk evaluation under the nation’s chemical safety law, the Toxic Substances Control Act. The five chemicals are acetaldehyde, acrylonitrile, benzenamine, 4,4’-methylene bis(2-chloroaniline) and vinyl chloride. The EPA also announced the beginning of the nine- to 12-month statutory process to prioritize the next five chemicals under the Act to determine whether to initiate risk evaluations on them: benzene, ethylbenzene, naphthalene, styrene and 4-tert-octylphenol.
Vinyl chloride is the primary ingredient used to make polyvinyl chloride, or PVC.
“Today we begin another five chemical risk evaluations under our nation’s strengthened chemical safety law and start the year-long process to initiate five more,” says Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. “These risk evaluations will be used to determine how to protect people from harmful chemical exposures.”
The EPA began the prioritization process for these five chemicals in the December 2023 announcement. This final designation of each chemical for risk evaluation is the last step in the statutory prioritization process.
The agency will now begin risk evaluations for these chemical substances to determine whether they present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment, without consideration of costs or other non-risk factors, under the conditions of use. If at the end of the risk evaluation process the EPA determines that a chemical presents an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment, the agency must immediately start the risk management process to address the unreasonable risk.
More about vinyl chloride
Vinyl chloride, which is primarily used in the manufacturing and processing of plastic materials like PVC, plastic resins and other chemicals. Many of these materials are used for pipes, insulating materials and consumer goods. This chemical was also involved in the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Exposure to vinyl chloride may result in a range of harmful health effects such as liver toxicity. Vinyl chloride is also a known human carcinogen. In the 1970s, the White House Council on Environmental Quality and EPA officials raised serious concerns about the health impacts of vinyl chloride. These concerns were the impetus for Congress to write the “original TSCA” law in 1976 to ensure chemicals were made and used safely.
Public comment
The EPA is opening a 90-day public comment period and is requesting further information on how these chemicals are used, their potential hazards and exposures, and the availability of information on each, as well as any other information relevant to the potential risks of these chemicals that will inform the agency’s review of these chemicals. Learn more by visiting the EPA’s Chemical Substances Undergoing Prioritization webpage.
