Blogs

On February 15, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) announced plans to seek public input on the best approaches for updating their respective oversight responsibilities for specific products. EPA states the goal is to determine responsibilities in an efficient and transparent manner and in alignment with each agency’s...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on February 16, 2023, that the latest Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Chemical Substance Inventory is now available on its website. The TSCA Inventory is a list of all existing chemical substances manufactured, processed, or imported in the United States. According to EPA, this update to the public TSCA Inventory is part of its biannual posting of non-confidential Inventory data. EPA plans the next regular update of the TSCA...

On February 15, 2023, the Environmental Coalition on Standards (ECOS) and the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND), non-governmental organizations in Europe working on both standardization and nanotechnologies, announced the release of a report entitled “Making nano- and advanced materials safe for all: State of play of discussions at the OECD.” According to the organizations, the use of nanomaterials remains underregulated in the European Union (EU). The press...

According to a February 13, 2023, press release issued by France’s Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion and Ministry of Energy Transition, France is appealing the November 23, 2022, decision of the European General Court that annuls the 2019 harmonized classification and labeling of titanium dioxide as a carcinogenic substance by inhalation in certain powder forms. As reported in our December 6, 2022, memorandum, the court concluded that the European...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on February 13, 2023, that it will accept public comments on candidates under consideration for selection as ad hoc reviewers to assist the Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) with peer review of two draft documents related to cumulative risk assessment under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Biographies of these candidates are available on regulations.gov. If selected, candidates will serve as...

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) will hold a virtual public meeting on February 16, 2023, postponed from January 10, 2023, on the chemicals under consideration for listing as Chemicals of Concern (COC) and High-Priority Chemicals (HPC) for the Toxic Chemicals in Children’s Products (TCCP) program. NYS DEC will present an overview of the enacted TCCP law and discuss the chemicals under consideration for listing as COCs and HPCs that manufacturers will be...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) will hold a webinar on February 22, 2023, entitled “DOE’s Progress Toward Meeting the Goals of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge.” The Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) Grand Challenge is a government-wide commitment to scale up production of SAF to 35 billion gallons per year by 2050 and reduce lifecycle aviation greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on February 23, 2023, that the New Chemicals Program will hold a webinar on February 28, 2023, on EPA’s process for assessing the potential risks of new chemicals under Section 5 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the types of data EPA considers in this assessment. EPA states that specifically, the upcoming webinar will cover commonly missed information in Section 5 submissions and how EPA evaluates environmental release...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on February 23, 2023, that the New Chemicals Program will hold a webinar on February 28, 2023, on EPA’s process for assessing the potential risks of new chemicals under Section 5 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the types of data EPA considers in this assessment. EPA states that specifically, the upcoming webinar will cover commonly missed information in Section 5...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   On February 8, 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $25.5 million in funding to enable the sustainable use of domestic biomass and waste resources, such as agricultural residues and algae, to produce low-carbon biofuels and bioproducts. DOE notes that this funding will advance the Biden Administration’s goals of delivering an equitable, clean energy future, and will put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions,...