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On December 4, 2013, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule entailing the use of electronic reporting for certain reporting requirements under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), effective March 4, 2014. This article summarizes the final rule....

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published Technical Specification (TS) 13830:2013, “Nanotechnologies — Guidance on voluntary labelling for consumer products containing manufactured nano-objects.” See https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:ts:13830:ed-1:v1:en The purpose of the guidance “is to provide a framework to facilitate a harmonized approach for the voluntary provision of labelling for [consumer products containing...

On November 28, 2013, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced that the Working Group for IARC Monographs Volume 111, “Some Nanomaterials and Some Fibres,” will meet September 30 to October 7, 2014. IARC states that “[d]etails will follow shortly.”...

On November 20, 2013, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its intent to release for comment proposed Draft Guidelines for Product Environmental Performance Standards and Ecolabels for Voluntary Use in Federal Procurement (Draft Guidelines). EPA states the Draft Guidelines — developed by EPA, the General Services Administration (GSA), and other federal agencies following several “listening sessions” with a wide range of stakeholders — are...

When the Natural Resources Defense Council sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency immediately after the EPA conditionally registered HeiQ AGS-20 and AGS-20 U nanosilver pesticide products, the nano community collectively held its breath. On Nov. 7, 2013, that same community let out a collective sigh of relief as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit largely upheld the EPA’s approach under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act in registering the first...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued in October 2013 a final rule amending a significant new use rule (SNUR) for perfluoroalkyl sulfonate (PFAS) chemical substances. The rule is receiving praise because it narrowly and precisely targets the scope of the “articles” (finished products) subject to the SNUR requirements....

On November 13, 2013, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy held a hearing on the Chemical Safety Improvement Act (S. 1009) (CSIA), which was introduced in May 2013 by the late Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Senator David Vitter (R-LA). Earlier this year, the House Subcommittee held hearings to provide an overview of Title I of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA); examine TSCA Sections 5 and 14, which...

On November 7, 2013, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a decision granting in part and denying in part the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) petition for review of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) conditional registration of HeiQ AGS-20 and AGS-20 U (collectively, AGS-20) pesticide products that EPA has determined contain nanoscale silver (nanosilver). The court vacated EPA’s decision “insofar as it concluded that...

Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) announced in October 2013 a voluntary guidance document on measuring airborne carbon nanotubes (CNT) in workplaces....

On November 7, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted in part and denied in part the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) petition for review of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) conditional registration of HeiQ AGS-20 and AGS-20 U (collectively, AGS-20) nanosilver products....