On July 23, 2020, the European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) published a Nanopinion entitled “Material manufacturing from nano-scaled particles: moving forward using plants” by Dr. Blaise Tardy, Research Fellow, Bio-Based Colloids and Materials Research Group — Aalto University in Finland. Dr. Tardy notes that bio-based nanomaterials such as nanocellulose “have shown great promise in forming high performance materials, with the potential to replace...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting public comments on the experts under consideration for membership on the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC). Biographies of the candidates are available in Docket ID EPA-HQ-OPPT-2020-0135. Comments are due August 21, 2020. EPA states that it will use public comments to assist it in selecting multiple members of SACC over the next year. EPA expects to appoint approximately 15...
The July 2020 issue of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Environmental Factor includes an item on a new database that facilitates nanomaterial research. According to the article, NIEHS grantees constructed PubVINAS, “a large database of structure, chemical property, and activity information on 705 nanomaterials, covering 11 material types.” The article states that the extensive data on each material “allows scientists...
Chemical manufacturers and processors have just over four months to submit Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) data by the November 30, 2020, close of the reporting period. To assist companies in that process, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®) affiliate The Acta Group (Acta®) developed CDR Cross-Check™, an ingenious and cost-efficient tool to identify whether a company’s chemicals are subject to CDR reporting and if so, at what reporting threshold. CDR Cross-Check will identify:...
On July 16, 2020, a coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGO) filed a petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final risk evaluation for methylene chloride. The NGOs seek review of EPA’s determination “that the chemical methylene chloride does not present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment under certain conditions of use” and its decision not to consider “certain uses...
On July 7, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of new guidance (Guidance) for registrants of products on or eligible for inclusion on List N, EPA’s list of disinfectant products that EPA has concluded meet EPA’s criteria for use against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This new guidance provides expedited procedures for those registrants that wish to add electrostatic application methods to their disinfectant product...
July 14, 2020
EPA OIG Finds Safer Choice Program Would Benefit from Formal Goals and Additional Oversight
On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report on its audit to determine whether the Safer Choice program effectively meets its goals and whether the program achieves quality standards through its product qualification, renewal, and required audit processes. OIG states that EPA’s Safer Choice program does not have formal goals included in the fiscal year (FY) 2018-2022 EPA Strategic Plan, and the program has not reported...
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has begun a public consultation on a draft document entitled “EFSA Guidance on Technical Requirements for Regulated Food and Feed Product Applications to Establish the Presence of Small Particles Including Nanoparticles.” The draft Guidance sets out information requirements for applications in the regulated food and feed product areas and establishes criteria for assessing the presence of a fraction of small particles. EFSA...
July 12, 2020
EPA OIG Finds Additional Internal Controls Would Improve EPA’s System for Electronic Disclosure of Environmental Violations
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released on June 30, 2022, a report entitled “Additional Internal Controls Would Improve the EPA’s System for Electronic Disclosure of Environmental Violations.” OIG conducted the evaluation to determine whether EPA’s process for screening self-reported violations through its electronic disclosure, or eDisclosure, system is effective and ensures that significant concerns, such as criminal conduct and...
July 9, 2020
EPA Announces Research Studying the Potential Long-Lasting Effectiveness of Disinfectants against SARS-CoV-2
On July 7, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that EPA researchers are evaluating a number of commercially available products for potential long-lasting effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2, the novel human coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This research is being conducted at EPA’s Office of Research and Development's Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, using surfaces that mimic the high...
This week's All Things Chemical™ Podcast will be of interest to readers of the Pesticide Law & Policy Blog®. A brief description of the episode written by Lynn L. Bergeson is below. This week I sat down with James Aidala, B&C’s Senior Government Affairs Consultant, to catch up on what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) is up to and to get a sense of what we might expect to develop over the remainder of the year. As a...
July 9, 2020
ANSI Nanotechnology Standards Panel Will Hold Virtual Workshop on Advanced Materials in August
On August 19 and 20, 2020, the American National Standards Institute Nanotechnology Standards Panel (ANSI-NSP) will hold a virtual workshop on advanced materials. ANSI states that advanced materials are of growing interest as there is increasing recognition that size alone does not define the unique properties of a material. More and more, governments and organizations that originally focused on nanomaterials are now also focusing on advanced materials and emerging...
On June 24, 2020, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®), The Environmental Law Institute (ELI), and the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health presented “TSCA Reform -- Four Years Later.” A full recording of the seminar, including a keynote address by Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, Assistant Administrator, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and comments by the Hon. John Shimkus U.S....
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published two nanotechnology standards: ISO 21363:2020, “Nanotechnologies — Measurements of particle size and shape distributions by transmission electron microscopy”: The standard specifies how to capture, measure, and analyze transmission electron microscopy images to obtain particle size and shape distributions in the nanoscale. According to ISO, the standard is broadly applicable to nano-objects, as well as to particles...
On June 24, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a New Approach Methods (NAM) Work Plan that will “serve[] as a roadmap for meeting its animal testing reduction goals set forth in Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s 2019 Directive.” According to EPA’s June 24, 2020, press release, the Work Plan describes how EPA plans to develop, test, and apply chemical safety testing approaches that reduce or replace the use of animals. EPA states that...
On July 6, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it approved amended labels for two products, Lysol Disinfectant Spray (EPA Reg. No. 777-99) and Lysol Disinfectant Max Cover Mist (EPA Reg. No. 777-127), based on laboratory testing that shows the products are effective against SARS-CoV-2. These are the first products for which EPA has reviewed laboratory testing data and approved label claims against SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, at the beginning of the...
July 7, 2020
Nanodatabase Adds Product Number 4,000
The Nanodatabase has posted a June 1, 2020, press release announcing that it has added product number 4,000 in its database. According to the press release, silver is still the nanomaterial most often reported, with titanium and titanium dioxide the second and third most common. The press release notes that for almost 3,000 products, the type of nanomaterial is unknown, however. The database includes categories for health and fitness (2,310 products, a little more...
In July 2020, the German Environment Agency (UBA) published a report entitled Advanced materials: Overview of the field and screening criteria for relevance assessment. The report describes activities within the project “Advanced materials — Thematic conferences: Assessment of needs to act on chemical safety” to provide discussion input on approaches to describe, cluster, and prioritize advanced materials. The aim of the report is to identify relevant advanced...
On July 1, 2020, the European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) published a Nanopinion entitled “Polymer based nanocomposites – enabling innovation, resource efficiency and helping to fight climate change” by Dr. Sabine Lindner, Consumer and Environmental Affairs, PlasticsEurope Deutschland e.V. Dr. Lindner notes how the addition of nanoscale particles to plastic matrices can improve the properties of products such as plastic packaging for food. According to Dr....
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on July 2, 2020, that it has registered NSPW Nanosilver (a new nanosilver formulation) to suppress odor-causing bacteria and algae, fungus, mold, and mildew that can cause deterioration or staining in textiles. Textiles that may be treated with NSPW Nanosilver include fabrics, sportswear, footwear, linens, and awnings. NSPW Nanosilver is the active ingredient in the pesticide product POLYGUARD-NSPW MASTER BATCH...