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On February 15, 2023, Bloomberg Law quoted Lynn L. Bergeson, Managing Partner, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®), regarding claims by environmental groups that the European Union (EU) has failed to update rules on nanomaterials, leading to insufficient information being provided about the potential health and environmental risks posed by the substances.  An update of REACH is being prepared that will, among other things, write the mid-2022 definition of...

Download transcript. This week, I welcomed back to the studio Karin F. Baron, Director of Hazard Communication and International Registration Strategy at B&C and our consulting affiliate, The Acta Group. During this 100th All Things Chemical podcast, Karin and I discuss the very important recently released amendments to the Canadian Hazardous Products Regulations (HPR). The amendments are intended to align the HPR with the seventh revised edition (Rev 7) of the United Nations (UN)...

This article focuses on one of many abrupt, and in some views, unlawful, EPA policy shifts frustrating lawyers and confusing the public. The EPA moved in 2021 from a “conditions of use” approach to evaluating chemical risk to a “whole chemical” approach. This seemingly modest change is a key reason why lawyers advising chemical stakeholders are struggling and why there may be a lot of TSCA litigation in the EPA’s future.

On February 7, 2023, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced the availability of a much anticipated detailed proposal to restrict more than 10,000 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation. The national authorities of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden (dossier submitters) submitted the proposal after finding risks in the manufacture, placement on the...

On February 3, 2023, the Turkish Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change (MoEUCC) released new guidance on the registration requirements under the KKDIK regulation (Kimyasalların Kaydı, Değerlendirilmesi, İzni ve Kısıtlanması). As a result of this new guidance, providing importer information for the registration of a substance is now optional instead of mandatory, the chemical safety report (CSR) may be submitted in English, and there is additional time after the...

Download transcript. This week, I sat down with Jim Aidala, Senior Government Affairs Consultant at B&C and its consulting affiliate, The Acta Group. We discuss what to expect in 2023 from Capitol Hill and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) when it comes to key chemical matters. Jim is, of course, one of the country’s most talented pesticide experts and, as a former Assistant Administrator of what is now OCSPP and a...

Chemicals are the foundational origin of just about everything we enjoy and cannot live without. The federal law that authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate industrial chemical substances is the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), an almost 47-year-old law significantly amended in 2016 by the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (Lautenberg). Lautenberg’s passage was a bipartisan triumph marking the do-over of a law that many...

The Environmental Law Institute (ELI) presented "Analyzing the EPA’s Proposal to List PFAS Chemicals as Hazardous Substances," focusing on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed rule designating perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) as “hazardous substances” under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). This webinar discussed what this designation means for products regulation and for Superfund...

On January 26, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a significant new use rule (SNUR) for those per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that are currently on the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory but that have not been actively manufactured (including imported) or processed in the United States since 2006 and are consequently designated as inactive on the TSCA Inventory. 88 Fed. Reg. 4937. Persons subject to the SNUR would be required to notify EPA at...

On January 17, 2023, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) began a public consultation on changes to the data requirements in the Great Britain (GB) Biocidal Products Regulation (GB BPR). GB BPR applies to the supply and use of biocidal products. Biocidal products are products that control harmful organisms, and include insecticides, rodenticides, wood preservatives, anti-fouling coatings on ships, disinfectants, and hand sanitizers. HSE is consulting on proposed revisions to Annexes...