Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a supplemental proposed rule that would add a Diisononyl phthalate (DINP) category to the list of toxic chemicals subject to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting requirements under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act and the Pollution Prevention Act. EPA has also released an updated hazard assessment which proposes that the DINP category can reasonably be anticipated to cause cancer and serious or irreversible chronic health effects in humans; specifically, developmental effects, kidney toxicity, and liver toxicity. DINP is a common chemical name for a family of di-ester phthalates widely used as plasticizers. These chemicals are colorless, oily liquids with high boiling points, low volatilities, and are poorly soluble in water. The treatment of plastics with DINP-category chemicals provides greater flexibility and softness to the final product. Some of the uses of DINP-treated plastics are the production of coated fabrics, plastic toys, electrical insulation, and vinyl flooring. In 2000, EPA proposed a rule to add a DINP category to the list of chemicals required to report to TRI in response to a petition, and conducted a hazard assessment on DINP chemicals, which was later revised and again published for comment in 2005. In 2022, EPA agreed through a consent decree to either finalize a rule adding a DINP category to the TRI chemical list in 2023 or withdraw the 2000 proposal. If finalized, the rule would require certain facilities in certain industry sectors (including federal facilities) that manufacture or process more than 25,000 pounds of DINP-category chemicals per year, or otherwise use more than 10,000 pounds of DINP-category chemicals per year, to report certain information to TRI. The data would include quantities of DINP-category chemicals that were released into the environment or otherwise managed as waste. The TRI program helps increase the public's knowledge of and access to information about chemicals at facilities in their area, how those chemicals are being managed, and if they are being released into the environment. States and communities, working with facilities, can use the information to improve chemical safety and protect public health and the environment. The data collected also help inform EPA's efforts to better understand the listed substances. As part of the process of developing this rule, EPA has updated its hazard assessment and economic analysis for the DINP category. Since its previous hazard assessment in 2005, there have been additional studies of the health effects of DINP chemicals. Based on EPA's review of the available carcinogenicity data, EPA proposes to conclude that DINP-category chemicals can reasonably be anticipated to cause cancer in humans. In addition, based on EPA's review of the available chronic toxicity data, EPA proposes to conclude that DINP-category chemicals can reasonably be anticipated to cause serious or irreversible chronic human health effects at moderately low to low doses, including developmental effects, kidney toxicity, and liver toxicity. The data for DINP demonstrate that DINP has moderately high to high human health toxicity. Also note that DINP is also undergoing a risk evaluation required under section 6(b) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and that the scientific analyses used for this listing will undergo further analyses and review as part of the TSCA risk evaluation process. Having chemicals on the TRI list can be helpful to the TSCA risk evaluation process, as well as any related risk management activities, as TRI can provide information concerning releases and waste management activities. Such information can help inform what potential exposures are present, as well as help identify facilities that deal with a given chemical (e.g., chemicals in the proposed TRI DINP category). Nevertheless, EPA is not requesting comment in response to this present Notice on any issues related to the TSCA 6(b) risk evaluation as part of this rulemaking; rather, only comments directly related to the TRI listing proposal are relevant to this action. EPA will accept comments on the supplemental proposed rule for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register via docket EPA-HQ-TRI-2022-0262 on www.regulations.gov. | 
