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On Dec. 17, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified styrene as one of five candidates for designation as “High Priority Substances for Risk evaluation” under the agency’s Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) program. EPA’s action will be formally announced in the Dec. 18 Federal Register. The American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA, Arlington, Va., U.S.) releases the following statement below based on this development.

Why does this matter? The EPA is expected to complete its prioritization of these substances in late 2025. If styrene is designated as “high priority,” then the agency will proceed to risk evaluation and development of risk management standards to regulate uses of styrene the agency determines are associated with unreasonable risk.

This action comes soon after the EPA on Dec. 12 requested chemical manufacturers and importers to submit copies and lists of certain unpublished health and safety studies on certain chemicals — including styrene — to the EPA to assist with prioritization, risk evaluations and risk management activities under TSCA.

The EPA hosted a series of pre-prioritization meetings and has taken steps to evaluate the available data on toxicity, uses and exposures for the substances initiated. In addition to styrene, the EPA also initiated prioritization for 4-tert-octylphenol, benzene, ethylbenzene and naphthalene. Ethylbenzene is the primary input for the manufacture of styrene.

What’s at stake? All manufacturers that rely on styrene in their operations should pay close attention to these developments as the outcome of this review is expected to have a direct impact on U.S. manufacturing operations. The EPA’s regulation of substances, since Congress made significant revisions to the TSCA statute in 2016, have resulted in very low risk thresholds and highly stringent control requirements including in some cases prohibition of certain uses of the regulated chemicals.

The overall impact to the TSCA program due to the incoming administration’s policies and the outcome of several court challenges is likely to be significant, but the precise consequences for the styrene risk evaluation and risk management standards are not predictable.

“America’s composite manufacturers are innovators, committed to minimizing their environmental footprint while supporting the workforce that delivers composite technologies to market,” says Cindy L. Squires, Esq., ACMA’s president and CEO. “The composites industry has a long history of working with advanced materials to safely deliver more durable structures, make transportation more efficient and higher performing, while providing critical consumer and industrial goods to market. We stand ready to engage constructively and robustly with EPA on this initiation of prioritization for styrene.”

ACMA says that this announcement starts the clock for a 90-day comment period on this action. Moreover, on Jan. 14 at 1:30 p.m. EST, the ACMA will host an industry roundtable to provide more information about EPA’s styrene prioritization and regulation under TSCA.