Published January 11, 2018

In June 2016, Congress passed a bill to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which helps EPA protect American families from the potential health effects of chemicals. This updated, bipartisan law is a major step in protecting Americans’ health. To make sure TSCA is enforced effectively, EPA requires the best scientific data on chemical safety. That’s where EPA research comes in.

Thousands of chemicals are currently in use, and hundreds more are introduced to the market every year. Workers can be exposed to these chemicals during production, and people can be exposed through the environment and products they use in their daily lives. Due to the time and resource-intensive nature of chemical safety testing, only a small fraction of chemicals has been evaluated for potential health effects. But EPA researchers are developing groundbreaking approaches to quickly and cost-effectively identify chemicals for in-depth testing, to better understand potential exposure to these chemicals, and to provide better access to the information that currently exists on these chemicals.

EPA researchers are developing, improving, and fine-tuning these tools to help with implementation of TSCA. They include:

• computational toxicology techniques that can quickly and inexpensively identify potentially hazardous chemicals that need further testing;
• a database consolidating previously hard to find data and information that can be accessed with the touch of a button;
• support for chemical risk evaluations;
• expertise in analyzing ecotoxicity;
• and the latest tools and data available for estimating exposure to chemicals. 

EPA research is helping to advance the science on chemical risk and as EPA moves forward with implementation of TSCA, researchers are positioned to provide the latest expertise and technology to serve the greater good.