The Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 is a federal law that gives the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to regulate the manufacture, import, use, and disposal of certain chemical substances and mixtures. The Act requires the EPA to evaluate the potential risks of a chemical before it can
The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is a United States law, passed by the Congress in 1976 and administered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that regulates chemicals not regulated by other U.S. federal statutes, including chemicals already in commerce and the introduction of new chemicals. When the TSCA was put into place, industry had an opportunity to submit chemicals that were existing in commerce at that time. Such chemicals became the original TSCA Inventory, allowing each to remain commerce without EPA review. Its three main objectives are to assess and regulate new commercial chemicals before they enter the market, to regulate chemicals already existing in 1976 that posed an "unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment", as for example PCBs, lead, mercury and radon, and to regulate these chemicals' distribution and use.