The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that it has added four per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to its Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) list.
The addition of the PFAs to the TRI is part of the EPA's Strategic Roadmap, "a plan that delivers on the agency’s mission to protect public health and the environment and answers the call for action on these persistent and dangerous chemicals," EPA stated in the Jan. 24 announcement.
Certain industry sectors and federal facilities that manufacture, process or otherwise use chemicals on the TRI list above their established quantities are required to report TRI data to the EPA, the agency states. This data includes identifications and quantities of TRI chemicals released into the environment, recycled or otherwise managed as waste. This information can help the EPA to better understand the listed substances, EPA reports.
Michal Freedhoff is the assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. He said in the announcement that the reporting requirements on how companies are handling the hazardous chemicals they use is necessary to fill "critical data gaps for these chemicals and take meaningful action to safeguard communities from PFAS."
Currently, there is limited or no data on the toxicity of most of the PFAS that exist in commerce, the EPA reports.
Companies subject to the reporting requirements for TRI-listed chemicals were to being tracking the requested data as of Jan. 1, the announcement states. The PFAS data collected for calendar year 2022 is due to the EPA by July 1, 2023, according to the announcement.
"We will use every tool in our toolbox to protect our communities from PFAS pollution," Freedhoff said in the announcement.
