EPA agrees to new deadlines for overdue chemical reviews

By Ellie Borst | 04/26/2024 01:26 PM EDT

The proposed deals would establish a new timeline for reviewing 22 chemicals, after the agency blew past the congressionally mandated 2023 deadline.

Chemistry equipment

Under proposed consent decrees, EPA would face new timetables for completing reviews of "high priority" chemicals. Louis Reed/Unsplash

EPA has tentatively agreed to finalize long overdue risk evaluations for 22 potentially dangerous chemicals by the end of 2026, more than three years after the original statutory deadline.

The two proposed consent decrees would establish new, court-ordered deadlines by which regulators must complete reviews for the nearly two dozen chemicals, ranging from phthalates to flame retardants, deemed “high priority” under the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Under the proposed agreements, EPA would have to finalize risk evaluations for five chemicals — formaldehyde, 1,1-dichloroethane, TCEP, DIDP and DINP — by the end of this year.

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EPA would have until the last day of 2025 to finalize risk evaluations for 1,3-butadiene as well as at least six other chemicals. It would have until the last day of 2026 to finalize risk evaluations for the remaining 10 chemicals.

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