TSCA section 6

TSCA Section 6 is the part of the federal Toxic Substances Control Act that gives the EPA authority to regulate, restrict, or ban chemicals that pose an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment. For asbestos, it is the legal hook the EPA has used, and failed to use, to try to remove the mineral from American commerce.

Origin

The Toxic Substances Control Act was passed by Congress in 1976, and Section 6 (codified at 15 U.S.C. § 2605) was its primary regulatory engine. The EPA used Section 6 in 1989 to issue the Asbestos Ban and Phase-Out Rule, most of which was struck down by the Fifth Circuit in Corrosion Proof Fittings v. EPA (1991). After Congress amended TSCA in 2016 (the Lautenberg Act), EPA used the revised Section 6 to issue a 2024 rule banning chrysotile asbestos.

Significance in Asbestos Context

TSCA Section 6 is the centerpiece of the United States' long, troubled effort to ban asbestos. The 1991 court ruling that gutted EPA's original ban is one of the main reasons asbestos was still legally imported, used in chlor-alkali plants, and present in some products in the U.S. decades after most industrialized countries banned it. For patients, this history matters because it explains why their exposures, including relatively recent ones, were legally permitted, and it undercuts any defense argument that asbestos use was a 'historical' problem already addressed by regulators. The 2024 chrysotile ban under the amended Section 6 also acknowledges, in federal regulatory language, that no safe level of asbestos exposure exists, which can support causation arguments.

Example Sentence

Plaintiff's counsel pointed out that the defendant continued importing chrysotile gaskets well into the 2000s because the 1991 Corrosion Proof Fittings decision had left TSCA Section 6 too weak to enforce a meaningful ban.

Related Terms

Corrosion Proof Fittings v. EPA, Asbestos Ban and Phase-Out Rule, Lautenberg Act, EPA, Chrysotile, OSHA Asbestos Standard

Notes

• If your exposure occurred after 1989, ask your legal team to map your exposure timeline against the regulatory history under TSCA Section 6. Continued lawful use does not equal safe use, and defendants often blur this distinction.
• Preserve any product packaging, purchase records, or workplace material safety data sheets (MSDS) from exposures after 2000; chrysotile-containing imports were still legal in narrow categories and can sometimes be sourced through these records.
• The 2024 EPA chrysotile rule and its supporting risk evaluation contain detailed findings on cancer risk at low exposure levels. These documents can be cited by your experts and are publicly available on the EPA website.
• Ask whether your case involves exposures from chlor-alkali plants, brake work, or imported gaskets, since these were the specific industries where Section 6's weakness allowed continued use.