On June 22, 2016, President Barack Obama signed into law the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act. The Lautenberg Act made substantial revisions to the forty-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), passed by Congress and enacted into law in 1976.
In the latest article in our Guest Author series, Kevin McLean, former Associate General Counsel for EPA’s Pesticides and Toxic Substances Law Office, explores the history and implementation of the original TSCA, the revisions made to TSCA in 2016 by the Lautenberg Act, and EPA’s experience in implementing the Lautenberg Act after its passage in June 2016.
He finds that, while EPA has made significant progress in implementing the Lautenberg Act revisions, recent approaches to implementation may undercut some of the protectiveness written into revised risk standards.