Martha Marrapese Weighs In on Voluntary Data Submissions for TSCA

Martha E. Marrapese, a partner in Wiley Rein’s Environment & Safety and Consumer Product Regulation practices, was quoted in an April 2 article in Chemical Watch regarding data submissions for Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) evaluations.  In the absence of the chemical industry providing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with data, the EPA will need to make assumptions in its prioritization and risk evaluation for chemicals under TSCA, according to the article.

Ms. Marrapese echoed the agency’s push for the industry to voluntarily submit information, and  identified exposure data as the biggest information gap for the EPA. “We’re really in great shape, in general, on the tox side. But where we really need to go is [to] dig a little deeper, in all of our work, on the exposure side,” she told Chemical Watch. 

Successfully generating such information “will be a tremendous contribution of [TSCA], and will also make the outcomes of the programme be much more predictable and reasonable,” Ms. Marrapese said, adding that the formation of industry consortia might be one way to provide that type of data.

“I want to encourage industry to provide data voluntarily to EPA for these exercises, especially exposure data,” she said. “I think that consortia – dedicated consortia, downstream consortia – for exposure data collection is going to be critical.”

The article can be found here (subscription required).