In December, the US EPA announced that it would optimize risk evaluations for five toxic chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). If, following a 12-month statutory process, EPA identifies that these five chemicals as high priority substances, EPA will proceed with risk evaluations for these chemicals.

In the following are the details of these five chemicals:
| Substance name | Intended use and potential hazard |
| Acetaldehyde (CASRN 75-07-0) |
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Acrylonitrile (CASRN 107-13-1) |
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Benzenamine (CASRN 62-53-3) |
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| 4,4’-Methylene bis(2-chloroaniline) (MBOCA) (CASRN 101-14-4) |
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| Vinyl Chloride (CASRN 75-01-4) |
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EPA plans to optimize risk evaluations for five chemicals annually to ensure consistent and efficient evaluations. If a chemical is found to pose an unreasonable risk to health or the environment during the risk evaluation, relevant authorities will promptly initiate a risk management programme to eliminate those risks.
After the notice is published in the Federal Register, EPA will commence a public comment to encourage manufacturers and companies that use these chemicals to submit their comments.
