Everything you need to know about the TSCA Section 5 review process

The passage of the Frank R Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act on 22 June 2016 had a profound impact on the US new chemicals programme. This training course will highlight important changes to that programme and provide technical training on the risk assessment process. This course builds upon training material originally developed under the US EPA Sustainable Futures programme.

Over the course of six modules, you will learn about a variety of methods and models you can use to conduct a preliminary risk assessment before submitting new chemical notifications to the EPA. Using these you will be able to better anticipate regulatory concerns and identify critical outcomes. The trainer will highlight useful notification strategies and demonstrate tools to help identify activities that carry risk, support targeted testing strategies and potentially reduce EPA review time. The course includes in-depth presentations on hazard, exposure and risk screening that address ecological and human health concerns, and will provide hands-on sessions with EPA and OECD computer-based models. 

Topics to be covered include EPA and OECD
approaches to:

  • determining important physico-chemical properties of a substance, along with methods to identify environmental attributes of concern; 
  • creating a screening level hazard assessment for human health and primary environmental media with a focus on principles for analogue analysis and read across to fill data gaps; and
  • modelling industrial operations including manufacturing, processing, commercial and consumer-use activities, and the potential environmental release and human exposure from those activities.

What to expect from the training course:

  • This course is intended for stakeholders involved in chemical development and/or regulation in the US.
  • The training material is designed for attendees of all scientific and regulatory backgrounds with varying expertise levels.
  • The course will provide an overview of the US new chemical notification process under TSCA, an introduction to the concepts of chemical risk assessment, and demonstrate free and publicly available tools for identifying chemicals of concern. 
  • Attendees will get hands-on experience with the same models and methods used by the EPA Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) to perform chemical risk screening and prioritisation for new and existing industrial chemicals. 

Workshop preparation:

Attendees should instal the freeware tools on their computers prior to the workshop. Additional instructions will be provided after registration.