The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on October 10, 2025, that it eliminated “an extensive backlog of notifications received from companies regarding chemical risks that needed review and routing across the agency.” Section 8(e) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requires chemical manufacturers, importers, processers, and distributors to report to EPA any information that indicates their chemical may pose substantial risk to human health or the environment. EPA automatically uploads non-confidential submissions to EPA’s ChemView website for public availability. EPA notes that all submissions — including those with confidential business information (CBI) — enter an internal database for EPA staff to review for data relevancy and internal routing.
EPA states that it assembled a team to eliminate the backlog and address the challenges of adapting to modern demands. The team completed review and assessment of more than 3,000 TSCA Section 8(e) submissions. According to EPA, about 65 contacts across the Agency “now receive notifications of TSCA section 8(e) submissions on substances such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, chemicals with pre-manufacture notices (PMNs) or significant new use rules (SNURs), high production volume chemicals (HPVs) and many more.” Of the approximately 3,000 backlogged TSCA Section 8(e) submissions processed by the team, the team flagged 920 as high interest and distributed them across the Agency.
To prevent future backlogs, EPA has taken the following steps:
- Establishing a workgroup that leverages expertise of EPA staff across the Agency to identify inefficiencies in the Section 8(e) program and develop process improvements;
- Enhancing the flagging process to categorize incoming TSCA Section 8(e) submissions for faster and more effective distribution to EPA staff, aiding in filling data gaps and meeting regulatory deadlines; and
- Implementing a new automated notification system that sends weekly updates to EPA staff via e-mail when incoming Section 8(e) submissions may be relevant to their work.
EPA notes that it is in the process of identifying further steps to make the TSCA Section 8(e) process more streamlined for submitters and will continue to update stakeholders on this process.
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