Department of Toxic Substances Control Mission:
To provide the highest level of safety, and to protect public health and the environment from toxic harm.
DTSC is a government agency of the state of California. DTSC cleans up thousands of hazardous waste sites in California including disposal sites and industrial sites that resulted in contamination of soil and groundwater. They protects future generations from the long term stewardship of hazardous substances through pollution prevention business assistance programs, and its new green chemistry mandate – to reduce use of toxic substances in everyday products used by California consumers.
Additionally, DTSC works to ensure that all new, existing, and proposed school sites are environmentally safe.
Other innovative strategies DTSC uses to minimize negative environmental and public health effects from past, present and future generations include hazardous waste recycling and resource recovery. These efforts facilitate recycling and reuse of hazardous waste. The waste evaluation program assists in waste determinations to identify what substances and in what concentrations are harmful. The household hazardous waste and agricultural chemical collection programs focus on removing dangerous substances from homes and preventing their release into the environment through landfills, sewer systems and illegal dumping.
