Higher and Lower Hazard Substances

Summary. Facilities in TURA-covered SIC codes that use 1,000 pounds or more of methylene chloride and have 10 or more full time employees are subject to Toxics Use Reduction Act (TURA) requirements as of January 1, 2014. These facilities are required to pay a fee, report on their use of listed toxic substances, and conduct toxics use reduction planning. See the press release issued by the Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs office.

Find out more in the Frequently Asked Questions section and fact sheet in the right column. For questions, contact the Toxics Use Reduction Institute at 978-934-3275.

Background

Under the 2006 Amendments to the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act, the TURA Administrative Council has the authority to designate up to 10 Higher Hazard Substances and up to 10 Lower Hazard Substances per year. The goal of this provision is to help Massachusetts companies and communities focus their toxics use reduction efforts on those chemicals that pose the most serious threats to health and the environment.

•  The Higher Hazard Substance designation lowers the threshold for reporting, planning, and paying TURA fees to 1,000 pounds per year.
•  The Lower Hazard Substance designation eliminates the per chemical fee. Reporting and planning requirements for these chemicals are unchanged.

For more information on Higher and Lower Substances, read this Fact Sheet.

Chemicals designated as Higher Hazard or Lower Hazard Substances are drawn from the TURA More and Less Hazardous Lists. These lists were created by the TURA Science Advisory Board as an informational resource.