TSCA Section 8(a)(1) Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements for Asbestos

Rule Summary

Previous technical issues with the reporting application have been fixed. EPA will continue to accept forms as timely through July 5, 2024.

In July 2023, EPA finalized reporting and recordkeeping requirements for asbestos under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The rule requires certain persons who manufactured (including imported) or processed asbestos and asbestos-containing articles (including as an impurity) in the last four years to report certain exposure-related information, including quantities of asbestos manufactured or processed, types of use, and employee data. The rule also covers asbestos-containing articles and situations where asbestos is a component of a mixture.

Specifically, the rule requires persons who manufactured (including imported) or processed asbestos at any time from 2019 to 2022 and whose annual sales, when combined with their ultimate parent company (if any), were greater than or equal to $500,000 in any calendar year from 2019 to 2022, to electronically report certain information. The submission period will begin six months after the effective date of the final rule. Therefore, manufacturers (including importers) and processors have up to nine months following the effective date of this final rule to collect and submit all required information to EPA.

This final rule is effective August 24, 2023. Information must be reported during the three-month data submission period beginning February 24, 2024 and ending May 24, 2024.

Instructions for submitting asbestos data through EPA’s CDX-based tool are now available: Guidance and Instructions for Reporting Asbestos Under TSCA Section 8(a)(1) (pdf) (1.49 MB) [Updated February 2024]

Guidance and Instructions Addendum: Additional Instructions for Submitting CBI (pdf) (2.64 MB) [Added April 2024]

EPA intends to use data collected through this rule to help inform future actions involving asbestos, including part 2 of the risk evaluation for asbestos and potential future risk management activities resulting from that risk evaluation. For example, data collected on asbestos as an impurity could better inform the risk evaluation of the use of asbestos in talc. Additionally, part 1 of EPA’s risk evaluation included uses where asbestos may be part of an article, or a component of an end use product, like brake blocks and gaskets. This reporting rule will help identify if there are articles that contain different types of asbestos.

Read the rule.

Rule History

What is TSCA section 8(a)?

TSCA section 8(a) generally authorizes EPA to promulgate rules that require entities, other than small manufacturers (including importers) or processors, who manufacture (including import) or process, chemical substance to maintain certain records and submit such reports as the EPA Administrator may reasonably require. However, TSCA section 8(a) enables EPA to require small manufacturers to report under certain circumstances, such as when the chemical is the subject of a TSCA section 6 proposed or final rule. Because asbestos is the subject of a final TSCA section 6 rule, certain forms of asbestos are not eligible for a small manufacturer (including importer) or processor exemption.

Under TSCA section 8(a), EPA may require reporting and recordkeeping of the following information:

The common or trade name, chemical identity, and molecular structure of each chemical substance or mixture;
Categories or proposed categories of use for each substance or mixture;
Total amount of each substance or mixture manufactured (including imported) or processed, the amounts manufactured (including imported) or processed for each category of use, and reasonable estimates of the respective amounts to be manufactured (including imported) or processed for each of its categories of use or proposed categories of use;
Descriptions of byproducts resulting from the manufacture (including import), processing, use, or disposal of each substance or mixture;
All existing information concerning the environmental and health effects of each substance or mixture;
The number of individuals exposed, and reasonable estimates of the number of individuals who will be exposed, to each substance or mixture in their places of employment and the duration of their exposure; and
The manner or method of disposal of each substance or mixture, and any change in such manner or method.