United States commercial chemical inventories

CAS Registry Numbers are also widely used as standard identifiers for chemical substances in many of the commercial chemical inventories of governmental regulatory agencies, such as the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory in the United States, the European Inventory of Existing Commercial Chemical Substances (EINECS), and the Canadian Domestic and Non-Domestic Substance Lists (DSL/NDSL). 

Poly(vinyl chloride) is Hsted on the TSCA inventory and the Canadian Domestic Substances List (DSL) as ethene, chloro-, homopolymer [9002-86-2]. Because polymers do not appear on the European Community Commercial Chemical Substances listing or EINECS, poly(vinyl chloride) is listed through its monomer, vinyl chloride [75-01-4]. In the United States, poly(vinyl chloride) is an EPA hazardous air pollutant under the Clean Air Act Section 112 (40 CER 61) and is covered under the New Jersey Community Right-to-Know Survey N.J. Environmental Hazardous Substances (EHS) List as "chloroethylene, polymer" with a reporting threshold of 225 kg (500 lb). 

All four butanols are registered ia the United States on the Environmental Protection Agency Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory, a prerequisite for the manufacture or importation for commercial sale of any chemical substance or mixture ia quantities greater than a 1000 pounds (454 kg). Additionally, the manufacture and distribution of the butanols ia the United States are regulated under the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA), Section 313, which requires that anyone handling at least 10,000 pounds (4545 kg) a year of a chemical substance report to both the EPA and the state any release of that substance to the environment. 

First, of all, I would like to clarify the term "new chemicals." I am referring to the TSCA definition as those chemicals not listed on the TSCA Chemical Substance Inventory and maintained on a daily basis by the Office of Toxic Substances within EPA. This is a list of all commercial chemicals - some 55,000 in all - produced in or imported into the United States during the period of 1975 through 1979. My talk this afternoon will not cover the thousands of formula changes in mixtures of chemicals which occur almost daily as industry tries to meet changing market demands. 

The TSCA Inventory provides an overall picmre of the organic, inorganic, polymers, and UVCB (chemical substances of Unknown, or Variable Composition, Complex Reaction Products, and Biological Materials) chemicals produced, processed, or imported for commercial purposes in the United States. The Inventory is not a list of chemicals based on toxic or hazardous characteristics, since toxicity/hazard is not a criterion for inclusion in the list. The Inventory includes chemical substances of any commercial use in the United States since 1979 under the Environmental Protection Act, and is prepared by the US-EPA. The current TSCA Inventory contains approximately 81,600 chemicals. Currently, OPPT is focusing on a subset of approximately 3,000 HPV... 

Table 4-1 reports the other facilities, besides Dupont, in the United States that produce and/or process 1,3-dinitrobenzene. The data reported in Table 4-1 are derived from the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) of EPA (TRI92 1994). Only certain types of facilities were required to report to the TRI databank of EPA. Hence, this is not an exhaustive list. The Aldrich Chemical Company (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and Janssen Chimica (Gardena, California) also produced 1,3-DNB for commercial sale and use (Van et al. 1991). 1,3,5-TNB has been manufactured commercially by Kodak Park Division (Rochester, New York) (OHM/TADS 1991). 

In the United States, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Chemical Substances Inventory (derived from the Initial Inventory of the TSCA Chemical Substance Inventory) is a listing of chemical substances manufactured, imported, or in commercial use in the United States.27 It is not a list of toxic chemicals, since toxicity is not a criterion for inclusion in the list. It was developed in response to Section 8 (d) of the TSCA, public law 94-469, and was prepared by the U.S. EPA. 

The initial Inventory covers chemicals that were manufactured in or imported into the United States for the period of January 1,1975 through December 31,1977. New chemicals that have completed PMN review are added to the Inventory after commercial manufacture of the chemical has commenced. In addition, the TSCA Inventory provides a basis for chemical screening, chemical risk assessment, and chemical management. Many new chemicals are submitted as confidential materials, which mean that information on structure, use, etc. is not available to the public.28 The premise is that the release of this information would be detrimental to the financial interests of the submitting company. 

If a business is importing chemicals or chemical-containing items into the United States, that business must determine whether or not any chemical imported in bulk or as a part of a mixture, is a TSCA chemical substance and/or a new chemical substance prior to its importation for a nonexempt commercial purpose. Under Section 5 of TSCA, persons who intend to manufacture or import a new chemical substance into the United States must seek EPA approval by submitting a premanufacture notice (PMN) to EPA at least 90 days prior to importation to enable EPA to determine whether the new chemical may present an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment. A new chemical substance is one that is not already in commerce in the United States, as determined by inclusion in the TSCA Inventory of Chemical Substances maintained by EPA. New chemical substances include certain genetically modified microorganisms. 

When TSCA became law, there was no list of chemicals then used in the United States. Thus a vital first step was compilation of a comprehensive inventtsy of chemical substances in commercial production. As chemicals pass through the new chemicals program, they are added to the TSCA inventory. As of 1991, there were about 70,000 chemicals on the inventory [9]. 

The nitrogen mustards HN-1, HN-2, and HN-3 are not manutaciured in significant commercial quantities in the United States. Although several of the nitrogen mustards have medicinal uses and as chemical warfare agents, they w ere never stockpiled as pait of the U.S. chemical warfare inventory. 

Chemicals not on the Inventory and not otherwise exempted cannot be imported, manufactured, or processed in the United States for commercial purposes without filing a premanufacture notice (PMN) under TSCA 5." Fifing a PMN can be a lengthy and relatively expensive process. 

As discussed in The Inventory Chapter, 5 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requires that all chemicals manufactured, processed, or used in the United States must be on a comprehensive list of chemicals maintained by the United States Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to 8(b) of TSCA, called the TSCA Inventory. When commercial product is not manufactured according to specifications, that nonconforming product could be, or could contain, a chemical substance not on the TSCA Inventory, which would limit the ability to sell the product as is or to rework it. This procedure deals with how to assess the TSCA implications of the management of manufactured nonconforming commercial product. 

Recently, the EPA/OPTS announced the availability of nonconfidential information of the TSCA inventory on a computer tape through NTIS. The inventory is a list of chemicals that are in commercial use in the United States, together with the levels of production. 

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