CONSUMER PRODUCTS AND RETAIL E-SSENTIALS

USA: EPA further extends the compliance date of PIP (3:1)

MARCH 2022 - ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS, HARDLINES, SOFTLINES, TOYS AND CHILDREN'S PRODUCTS

The USA Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a final rule¹ to further extend the compliance date for the rule of PIP (3:1) in articles until 31 October 2024. The EPA rule of 40 CFR 751.407 is amended and takes effect on 8 March 2022. 

Back to 17 September 2021, EPA provided a short-term extension² of certain compliance dates for PIP (3:1) to 8 March 2022. With this new amendment, the prohibitions on processing and distributing in commerce of PIP (3:1) for use in articles, and the processing and distributing in commerce of PIP (3:1)-containing articles, as well as the associated recordkeeping requirement will apply from 24 October 2024. The extension of the compliance date is to further address the hardships inadvertently created by the original applicable compliance date in the January 2021 final rule³. Many stakeholders, especially for electrical and electronic manufacturing, raised a big concern about this rule. Wide range of consumer, industrial and commercial goods such as cellular telephone, laptop computer, commercial equipment, etc.  

In addition to the publication of this final rule, EPA would like to issue a proposal for a new separate rulemaking on PIP (3:1) and other PBT chemicals in the spring of 2023. This aims to review the final rules to further reduce worker exposures to hazardous substances, promote environmental justice, and better protect human health and the environment. 

Abbreviations: 

PIP (3:1): phenol, isopropylated phosphate (3:1) 
PBT: Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and Toxic 

[1]  Compliance date extension of PIP (3:1), March 2022 

[2]  Short-term extension of compliance date of PIP (3:1), January 2021 

[3]  Federal Register, final rule of PIP (3:1)