On March 2, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it reached a settlement agreement with Brenntag Pacific, Inc. for violations of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). According to EPA, Brenntag Pacific, Inc. has corrected the violations and will pay a $128,265 fine. EPA states that it discovered the violations following inspections at Brenntag Pacific, Inc. facilities in Fairbanks, Alaska, and in Santa Fe Springs, California. EPA inspectors “found the...
Registration is open for the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative’s (NNI) March 23, 2021, webinar on “What We Know About NanoEHS: Human Exposure.” The webinar will feature experts from diverse disciplines to share their perspectives on key findings in quantifying and assessing the effects of human exposure to nanomaterials. Keana Scott, Ph.D., Physical Scientist, Materials Measurement Science Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology...
March 3, 2021
GAO Reports that EPA’s Process for Assessing and Controlling Toxic Chemicals Has Regressed
On March 2, 2021, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published its latest High Risk List, which includes 36 areas across the federal government vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement or needing broad-based transformation. According to GAO, five areas have regressed since 2019, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) process for assessing and controlling toxic chemicals. GAO’s report, High-Risk Series: Dedicated Leadership Needed to Address...
March 3, 2021
NIEHS-Funded Study Finds Graphene Nanochannel Filters Hold Promise for Contaminant Clean-Up
The March 2021 issue of Environmental Factor, a monthly newsletter published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), includes an item entitled “New graphene nanochannel filters hold promise for contaminant clean-up.” According to the item, an NIEHS-funded study found a new strategy to design nanomaterials to filter contaminants better from water. To improve the usefulness of graphene oxide nanosheets for filtering contaminants from liquid, the...
On March 1, 2021, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) publicly released a report entitled Man-Made Chemicals and Potential Health Risks: EPA Has Completed Some Regulatory-Related Actions for PFAS. GAO was asked to examine the status of regulatory-related actions in EPA’s 2019 Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Action Plan. GAO found that EPA completed three of six selected regulatory-related actions for addressing PFAS outlined in the PFAS...
On February 5, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it is reviewing actions issued under the previous Administration and will take any needed steps to ensure that they protect human health and the environment. The announcement included an update on the following chemical safety actions that have immediate or near-term effective dates or other steps associated with them. According to the announcement, these actions, along with other chemical safety...
The Verband der Mineralfarbenindustrie e. V. (VdMi), which represents German manufacturers of inorganic, organic, and metallic pigments, fillers, carbon black, ceramic and glass colors, food colorants, artists’ and school paints, masterbatches, and products for applied photocatalysis, has published a “Comparative Compilation of relevant nano definitions in different regulations and their corresponding consequences.” The compilation notes that pigments and fillers often fall under the...
February 25, 2021
EC Calls for Applications for Expert Group on Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability
On February 23, 2021, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) announced that in association with other relevant Directorates-General (DG) of the European Commission (EC), DG Environment has opened a call for applications to select members for an expert group, the High-Level Roundtable on Implementation of the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. According to EU-OSHA, the expert group’s mission “is to set the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability...
On February 19, 2021, the European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) published a Nanopinion entitled “eREACHNano helps you to register nanoforms under REACH” by Dorte Rasmussen, Ph.D., who has been working on the exposure and risk assessment of chemicals at DHI A/S for almost 25 years. Rasmussen describes eREACHNano, a tool developed to explain Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation requirements for nanoforms. ...
February 22, 2021
EPA Seeks Participants for Small Business Review Panel on Risk Management Rulemaking for PV29
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on February 19, 2021, that it is inviting small businesses, governments, and not-for-profits to participate as Small Entity Representatives (SER) to provide advice and recommendations to a Small Business Advocacy Review (SBAR) Panel for C.I. Pigment Violet 29 (PV29). The Panel will focus on EPA’s development of a proposed rule to address unreasonable risks identified in EPA’s recently completed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)...