U.S. vs. EU Chemical Regulation: Harmony and Conflict between TSCA and REACH
The American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources‘ Young Lawyers Division presented a fascinating webinar on June 23, 2015, on the key areas of alignment and non-alignment between the European Union’s (EU) and the United States’ approach to chemical management by exploring the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation and the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The webinar was moderated by Lynn L. Bergeson, managing partner of Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®), and featured panelists Meglena Mihova of EPPA, a management consultancy and public affairs company in Brussels, Belgium, and Lawrence E. Culleen, a partner with Arnold & Porter, LLP.
Over the briskly-paced 90 minute webinar, the participants distilled core elements of both TSCA and REACH governance approaches, identified critical areas of alignment and non-alignment, and discussed several overarching concepts to elicit a better understanding of how TSCA and REACH differ, including:
- Data collection and generation;
- Risk assessment and risk management;
- Enforcement; and
- Current TSCA and REACH reform activity.
B&C live-tweeted from the webinar; those tweets are reprinted below. A recording of the webinar is available for purchase from Shop ABA.