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In the spirit of the Chemical Right-to-Know Initiative, EPA strongly encourages companies which make commitments under the HPV Challenge Program to sponsor a chemical or chemicals, not to make Confidential Business Information (CBI) claims. The public's right-to-know and accountability are cornerstones of the HPV Challenge Program.

  Historically, only a small percentage of companies have asserted CBI claims related to the association of the company with a specific chemical in submissions under EPA's Inventory Update Rule (IUR). EPA will accept voluntary commitments under the HPV Challenge Program from individual companies and members of consortia which have previously made this kind of CBI claim in IUR submissions.

  However, EPA will not accept voluntary commitments if a manufacturer or importer is asserting a CBI claim related to the company-chemical linkage under the HPV Challenge Program which was not previously asserted in an IUR submission.

If you are reasserting a CBI claim that you made with your original IUR submission, you will need to send two copies of your commitment letter. The one containing CBI will need to be clearly marked as such, with brackets around the specific information being claimed CBI (for example, the identity of your company associated with a particular chemical).

Send that copy in a double envelope; the inside envelope should be marked "TSCA CBI, to be opened by addressee only." The outside envelope should have no such distinguishing markings besides this address: US EPA, Document Control Officer (7407M), 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20460, Attn: HPV Challenge Program. If delivery is in person, by courier, or overnight/express mail, use this address on the outside envelope: Document Control Office (DCO), EPA East Building, Room 6428, 1201 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC. The DCO is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the DCO is (202) 564-8930. The second copy should be sanitized to remove the CBI information and included in the same envelope with the CBI version that is sent to the Document Control Office.

  Companies participating in consortia are encouraged to identify the chemicals which they are sponsoring. It is EPA's preference that at least one company within the consortium be publicly identifiable as being responsible for each chemical within the consortium.

 Consortia which include chemicals for which at least one company is not identified as being responsible for sponsorship of that chemical must apply for special consideration for inclusion in the HPV Challenge Program.