Toxic Substance Control Act
Summary
Under the authority granted to it by Congress in the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers the voluntary High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge Program, in which the fertilizer industry is a participant. The voluntary HPV Challenge Program was created by EPA to ensure that a baseline set of data on approximately 2,800 HPV chemicals, including the 25 fertilizer products most often produced and used in agriculture, are available to EPA and the public. HPV chemicals are manufactured or imported in amounts equal to or greater than 1 million lbs. per year.
Background
Fertilizers are Safe
To demonstrate and ensure the general safety of fertilizer products, the fertilizer industry, spearheaded by trade associations such as The Fertilizer Institute (TFI), spent several years conducting extensive product safety tests utilizing protocols consistent with EPA’s HPV Challenge. Along with extensive data already available on most fertilizer products, these data were used to develop reports on the human and ecological health hazards posed by the use of the 25 fertilizer products most often used and produced in agriculture as well as exposure information to put the hazard information into context. Data in the reports include physical and chemical properties, environmental fate, mammalian and ecological toxicity.
The data demonstrated that all fertilizer products tested pose little risk to fertilizer manufacturer employees, end users, communities and the environment when used properly. The results of this testing were then compared against data generated by EPA, the World Health Organization and others and ultimately were accepted by the International Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and into EPA’s HPV Challenge.
Chemical Data Reporting Requirement
On Aug. 2, 2011, EPA released a pre-publication copy of amendments to the TSCA Inventory Update Reporting (IUR) rule, including changing its name to the Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) rule.
The CDR rule requires manufacturers (including importers) of certain chemical substances to report information about the manufacturing (including importing), processing, and use of those chemical substances.