The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on August 11, 2025, the results of process improvements to accelerate the review of Low Volume Exemptions (LVE) in the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) New Chemicals Program. At the end of March 2025, EPA identified 79 LVEs waiting for review and established a dedicated team of risk assessors. EPA states that it completed the risk assessments and made preliminary decisions for all 79 cases during April and May 2025. According to EPA, 80 percent of these LVEs have received final decisions from EPA and the remaining 20 percent are awaiting information from the submitter before a final decision can be made. EPA also completed risk assessments for an additional 27 LVEs, for a total of 106 LVE risk assessments completed over two months.
The process improvements, including grouping similar cases, designating discipline-specific expediters, and using just-in-time communication, helped to gain speed and efficiencies. EPA states that it "recorded detailed data on assessor timeliness and identified periods of down time that can be shortened or eliminated, resulting in more opportunities for additional efficiency gains in the future." EPA intends to continue making improvements to decrease the review time for LVEs with the target of assigning an assessor and completing the review within 30 days.
EPA notes that under the Trump Administration, it recognizes that improving the review process for new chemicals is critical to advancing its "core mission of protecting human health and the environment, boosting our country's economy, powering innovation and ensuring regulatory certainty for U.S. manufacturers." EPA developed a process using existing resources to ensure LVEs that were sitting in the backlog for many months were reviewed by EPA assessors and received a preliminary decision to either grant or deny the exemptions. EPA states that "[t]hese improvements will ensure that these new chemistries can come to market in a way that is both timely and protective of human health and the environment."
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