TSCA Update: EPA Postpones Effective Date for TCE Workplace Protections

Updated 03/24/25

EPA is postponing, for 90 days, the effective date for workplace conditions imposed on uses of trichloroethylene (TCE) that are exempt from the December 2024 Final Rule to prohibit all uses of the chemical. The new effective date is June 20, 2025.

EPA lists the relevant exemptions, authorized under TSCA section 6(g), in 40 CFR 751.325(b). The exempted uses of TCE will be phased out over time and include use in the manufacturing of lead acid batteries and specialty polymer materials, use in laboratories for cleanup and exposure monitoring, and certain uses by the US Armed Forces and ("in an emergency") by NASA. 

In addition to the 90-day postponement annouced on April 2, EPA has requested more time from the courts to respond to a judicial stay of the conditions placed on TSCA section 6(g) exemptions. Following publication of the December 2024 Final Rule, industry stakeholders petitioned EPA to review the rule. Stakeholders voiced concern that the workplace conditions imposed by the rule (e.g., reducing TCE exposure levels to 0.2 ppm) are so restrictive that they "function as a total ban." 

More: Risk Management for Trichloroethylene (EPA.GOV)

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Updated 03/11/25

US EPA is extending the deadline for chemical manufacturers and others to submit health and safety data about 16 chemical substances, including benzene, hydrogen fluoride, and vinyl chloride. 
 

"The current reporting deadline for this rule is March 13, 2025. However, EPA intends to conduct a rulemaking to extend the reporting deadline by 90 days to June 11, 2025, for vinyl chloride and 180 days to September 9, 2025, for the other chemicals covered under this rule."

TSCA 8(d) Health and Safety Data Reporting: Addition of 16 Substances | US EPA

The Rule requires manufacturers, including importers, of sixteen chemicals to report to EPA about unpublished health and safety data and studies. The sixteen chemicals subject to this TSCA reporting requirement are listed below the December 17, 2024 update on this page.

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Updated 01/28/25

EPA has delayed until March 21, 2025 the effective date for the recent Final Rule to prohibit activity involving the chemical solvent trichloroethylene (TCE). 

The TCE Final Rule is one of four rulemakings for which EPA announced a delayed effective date on January 28, 2025. This is EPA's initial response to the Executive Order to "freeze" new regulations. EPA may identify additional rules that fit the EO's criteria for delay or review in future notices.


_{New hazmat, environmental, and safety regulations are "frozen" until further notice...}

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Updated 12/18/2024

Today, US EPA published the final TSCA risk management rules for carbon tetrachloride (CTC) and perchloroethylene (PCE). Both rules take effect on January 17, 2025. 

CTC Final Rule (12/18/2024)
PCE Final Rule (12/18/2024)

Also, EPA took final action to designate five chemicals as High Priority Substances for risk evaluation under TSCA—acetaldehyde, acrylonitrile, benzenamine, vinyl chloride, and MBOCA. In a subsequent move, five chemicals were added to the list to be considered for prioritization, including benzene, ethylbenzene, and styrene. 

Note: Lion's TSCA Activity Tracker has been updated.

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Updated 12/17/2024

1. Trichloroethylene (TCE) Final Rule
EPA published the Final Rule to restrict activities involving the chemical (TCE) today, December 17, 2024. Details about the Final Rule can be found below.

The rule takes effect on January 16, 2025. Read the Final Rule.

2. Announced: Carbon Tetrachloride (CTC) Final Rule 
A Final Rule to address the risks from the chemical carbon tetrachloride (CTC), sometimes called "carbon tet," was also announced. 

The Final Rule for CTC: 

• Establishes workplace safety requirements for most current uses of CTC.
• Prohibits activities with carbon tetrachloride for conditions of use that have already been discontinued. 

The administration's announcement about the Final Rule includes a list of uses for CTC which will be allowed to continue under a Workplace Chemical Protection Program (WCPP). This post will be updated when the rule is published and given an effective date.

3. Final Rule: Manufacturers Must Submit Unpublished Health & Safety Data 
A third recent Final Rule related to chemical risk evaluations requires manufacturers (including importers) of 16 chemicals to submit "copies and lists of certain unpublished health and safety studies." There is a relatively short turnaround for reporting—the deadline is March 13, 2025.  EPA has extended the deadline for reporting on these 16 chemicals for a minimum of 90 days. See above.

The list of 16 chemicals covered by the Final Rule includes acetaldehyde, acrylonitrile, benzene, vinyl chloride, styrene, hydrogen fluoride, and others substances identified as "high priority" for risk evaluation by US EPA.

The chemicals covered by this reporting requirement are:

• 4,4-Methylene bis(2-chloraniline) 
• 4-tert-octylphenol(4-(1,1,3,3-Tetramethylbutyl)-phenol)
• Acetaldehyde
• Acrylonitrile 
• Benzenamine 
• Benzene 
• Bisphenol A
• Ethylbenzene 
• Hydrogen fluoride
• N-(1,3-Dimethylbutyl)-N’-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine (6PPD)
• 2-anilino-5-[(4-methylpentan-2-yl) amino]cyclohexa-2,5-diene-1,4-dione (6PPD-quinone)   
• Naphthalene
• Styrene
• Tribomomethane (Bromoform) 
• Triglycidyl isocyanurate 
• Vinyl Chloride 

Note: Lion's TSCA Activity Tracker has been updated.

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Updated 12/6/2024

On December 6, US EPA announced final rulemakings to address the risks posed by two commonly used solvents—trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE). The two rules are the latest example of new prohibitions and worker protection requirements stemming from the ongoing chemical risk evaluations mandated by the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), as amended.

Note: Lion's TSCA Activity Tracker has been updated. 

Trichloroethylene (TCE) Final Rule 

EPA's Final Rule for trichloroethylene (TCE):

• Prohibits manufacture/import, processing, and distribution in commerce of TCE for all uses, including all consumer uses, with time frames for phasing out certain uses.
• Prohibits all industrial and commercial use, with timeframes to phasing out certain uses. 
• Prohibits disposal of TCE to publicly owned treatment works (POTWs).

The rule also creates new recordkeeping and downstream notifications requirements for TCE.
For several industrial and commercial uses of TCE, EPA is providing extended phase-out periods and/or multi-year exemptions for manufacture, processing, distribution in commerce, and/or use. 

Uses to be phased-out over time include:  

• Cleaning/degreasing aircraft parts, medical device tubing, rocket engines, 
• Rocket booster nozzle production 
• Asphalt testing and recovery 
• Manufacturing battery separators 
• Manufacturing “specialty polymeric microporous sheet materials”  
• Essential laboratory activities and some R&D activities
• Military readiness and the US space program 

Compliance timeframes for these uses vary quite a bit—some uses will be permitted for 5 years, others for 7 years, or 8.5, or 10, or 15, or 20. There is even a 50-year phase out period for TCE used as a chemical in some essential laboratory activities. 

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Perchloroethylene (PCE) Final Rule 

EPA’s Final Rule for perchloroethylene (PCE):

• Prohibits most industrial and commercial uses, as well as manufacturing, processing, or distributing PCE for those uses.
• Prohibits the manufacturing, processing, and distribution in commerce of PCE for all consumer use.
• Provides a 10-year phaseout period for manufacturing, processing, distribution in commerce, and commercial use in dry cleaning and spot cleaning. 

The Rule also mandates a Workplace Chemical Protection Program (WCPP) and/or requires worker protections for many non-prohibited occupational uses. It also establishes recordkeeping and downstream notification requirements for PCE. 

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What’s Next?
EPA proposed and took public comments on TSCA restrictions for these three other chemicals in 2023-2024: 1-bromopropane, n-Methylpyrrolidone (NMP), and carbon tetrachloride.  EPA may finalize and publish one or more of those rules before the current administration wraps up. Read more: TSCA Section 6 Rules.   

Risk Evaluation of Asbestos (Part 2)—Legacy Uses and Disposals
On November 27, 2024, US EPA announced that Part 2 of the TSCA-mandated risk evaluation for asbestos is now complete. 

For Part 2 of the risk evaluation, EPA reviewed “legacy uses” of asbestos, such as use in floor and ceiling tiles, pipe wrap, and insulation in older homes. EPA also evaluated disposal of asbestos associated with legacy uses—e.g., disposal of insulation during renovation of an older building. 

Why a 2-Part Risk Evaluation for Asbestos?
EPA’s early work on the asbestos risk evaluation focused on chrysotile asbestos, the only type still in use.
In 2019, a US Court of Appeals ruled that EPA should have considered past uses of asbestos when evaluating the substance’s risks (Safer Chemicals Health Families v. EPA). After the ruling, EPA decided to issue the asbestos risk evaluation in 2 parts. 

Part 1 of the risk evaluation was concerned with chrysotile asbestos and was completed in December 2020. The evaluation led EPA to determine that asbestos poses an unreasonable risk to human health.

The unreasonable risk finding led EPA to prohibit all ongoing uses of chrysotile asbestos, with phase out periods for certain products. The “part 1” Final Rule for asbestos also mandated employee protections and recordkeeping during phase-out periods. The Rule took effect in May, 2024.