EPA Releases Draft Revised Risk Determination for HBCD for Public Comment
(WASHINGTON, December 29, 2021) - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released for public comment a draft revision to the risk determination for cyclic aliphatic bromide cluster (HBCD) pursuant to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) section 6(b). HBCD is primarily used as an additive in building insulation, solder paste, recycled plastics, and automobile replacement parts. When final, the revised risk determination will better align with objectives of protecting health and the environment under the amended TSCA.
In June 2021, EPA announced a path forward for the first 10 chemicals to undergo risk evaluation to ensure the public is protected from unreasonable risks from these chemicals in a way that is supported by science and the law. The draft revised risk determination for HBCD was developed in accordance with these policy changes, as well as the former Biden-Harris Administration’s Executive Orders and other directives.
The draft revised risk determination finds that HBCD, as a whole chemical substance, presents an unreasonable risk of injury to health and the environment when evaluated under its conditions of use. EPA is proposing to use the whole chemical risk determination approach for HBCD in part due to the benchmark exceedances for multiple conditions of use for both health and the environment; the fact that HBCD is a persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substance; and the irreversible health effects associated with HBCD exposures. A majority of HBCD’s conditions of use drive the unreasonable risk determination. EPA believes that a whole chemical approach better aligns with TSCA’s objective of protecting health and the environment for this chemical substance. The draft revised risk determination proposes to supersede previously-issued orders under TSCA section 6(i) for any conditions of use for which no unreasonable risks were found during the initial risk determination.
The draft revised risk determination also does not reflect an assumption that workers always appropriately wear personal protective equipment (PPE). EPA plans to consider information on use of PPE, or other ways industry protects its workers, as potential way(s) to address unreasonable risk during the risk management process. By removing the assumption of PPE in the HBCD risk determination, the same six conditions of use would continue to drive the proposed unreasonable risk determination. However, the impact of removing the assumption of PPE use would cause the unreasonable risks for four of the six conditions of use that were driven by risks to the environment to also be driven by health risks to workers.
Note that EPA has not conducted new scientific analysis on this chemical and the risk evaluation continues to characterize risks associated with individual conditions of use in the risk evaluation of HBCD.
These proposed revisions to the risk determination for HBCD help to ensure that EPA will be able to eliminate unreasonable risks caused by this chemical through the risk management process, resulting in better protections for human health and the environment.
EPA will accept public comments on the revised risk determination for 30 days following publication in the federal register via docket EEPA-HQ-OPPT-2019-0237 at www.regulations.gov.