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On April 9, 2021, Bloomberg Law featured comments by Lynn L. Bergeson, Managing Partner, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®) regarding a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule restricting industrial uses of a popular flame retardant is causing headaches for equipment manufacturers and demonstrating how the nation’s chemicals law can upend global supply chains. But the Environmental Protection Agency was besieged by industry pleas for help soon after the new...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on June 10, 2021, three actions intended to protect communities from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The actions include proposing a rule designed to obtain comprehensive data on more than 1,000 PFAS manufactured in the United States, withdrawing guidance that EPA believes weakened its July 2020 significant new use rule (SNUR) restricting certain long-chain PFAS, and publishing a final rule that incorporates three...

On May 13, 2021, the Getting Ready for Baby Campaign, a collaboration of over 100 non-governmental organizations (NGO), released a report entitled Peeling Back the Green Façade: Calling out “Greenwashing” in the Crib Mattress Market as Lessons on Brand Manipulation of Health and Environmental Claims. Using the research for the report, Clean and Healthy New York (CHNY) filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on May 13, 2021, requesting that FTC investigate and take...

Download Transcript This week, I sat down with Meglena Mihova, Managing Partner, EPPA, the Brussels-based premier consultancy on matters involving key business sectors, including chemicals and chemical regulation. Meglena is expert on all matters involving the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and the complex relationships between and among ECHA, European Union (EU) member states, the European Commission, and other stakeholders. Meglena chairs the Environment Committee of the American...

Emerging tools enabled by nanotechnology, synthetic biology, and other innovative technologies are today increasingly supplementing the ploughs and tractors so emblematic of the agricultural community of the past. These precision farming tools are ensuring a sustainable food supply otherwise threatened by climate change and population growth, among other global challenges, while diminishing worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Genetically modified E coli is being used to produce...

The Environmental Law Institute (ELI), the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, and Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®) were pleased to announce the fifth annual conference providing updates and insights regarding the current state of TSCA implementation, ongoing and emerging issues, and related developments. Topics included how EPA is implementing Section 6 risk evaluation provisions, changes in new chemical review, existing chemical...

Download transcript. This week, I sat down with Heather J. Blankinship, Senior Manager with B&C® Consortia Management (BCCM), a Bergeson & Campbell (B&C®) affiliate, and Richard E. Engler, Ph.D., B&C’s Director of Chemistry, to discuss chemical testing under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Since Congress amended TSCA in 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been slowly ratcheting up required chemical testing under TSCA Section 4. Congress gave...

A Timely and Essential Complimentary ConferenceWednesday, June 30, 20219:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. (EDT)Register Now Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®), the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), and the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health are pleased to present “TSCA Reform – Five Years Later.” This complimentary virtual conference marks the fifth Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Annual Conference, reflecting on the accomplishments and...

Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®) is pleased to announce that Managing Partner Lynn L. Bergeson has been awarded the highest ranking attainable, Band 1, in Chambers USA Guide 2021. This is Ms. Bergeson’s 16th year earning top marks from Chambers USA as one of the best lawyers in America. The commentary accompanying her 2021 Chambers ranking speaks of Ms. Bergeson as “The best nationwide practitioner on product-related environmental regulations; a true...

Just as the industrial chemical community was getting into a predictable, somewhat comfortable groove regarding commercializing new chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided to blow up the process. With it went any hope for business certainty in this highly volatile regulatory area.  While new administrations are entitled to shape policies to align with their agendas, the Biden Administration’s decision to rescind...

On March 1, 2021, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) received for review under Executive Order 12866 (Regulatory Planning and Review) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a proposed rule entitled “Reporting and Recordkeeping for Perfluoroalkyl or Polyfluoroalkyl Substances Under Section 8(a)(7) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)” (Proposed Rule). This action is required under Section 7351 of the National Defense...

On May 21, 2021, Law 360 quoted Lynn L. Bergeson, Managing Partner, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®), regarding some of the first moves of the Biden Administration.  President Joe Biden picked Michal Freedhoff, who helped draft the amendments and worked for the Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee during the Trump administration, to lead the agency’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. Freedhoff is already in place...

On May 20, 2021, Chemical Watch featured comments by Richard E. Engler, Ph.D., Director of Chemistry, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®) regarding recent policy shifts signaled by the US EPA on how it conducts TSCA risk evaluations. Incorporating environmental justice considerations “may present a significant analytical challenge if EPA seeks to move beyond a fenceline cumulative exposure approach”, for example, if a worker is exposed at work and then...

Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®) and The Acta Group (Acta®) are pleased to announce that Amy L. Babcock, MPH, DABT®, ERT, MRSB has joined our firms as Senior Scientist. Ms. Babcock has 15-plus years of experience leading qualitative and quantitative human health risk assessments in industry and agency roles, most recently as Supervisory Toxicologist and Branch Chief of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), Office...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on April 29, 2021, that it will be “taking important steps under the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) to advance environmental justice, improve transparency, and increase access to environmental information.” The EPA plans to expand the scope of TRI reporting requirements to cover additional chemicals and facilities, including those not currently reporting ethylene oxide (EtO) releases. The agency also announced enhancements to its TRI...

Download transcript. This week, I sat down with Brenna Finn, Assistant Attorney General, Colorado Department of Law.  I am proud to report that Brenna was a law intern here at the firm years ago, as Brenna began her legal career, and pleased to report that her experience with the firm focused her career, in part, on chemical regulation.  Brenna’s substantive skills in Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)...

On May 12, 2021, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing on several Department of the Interior and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nominees, including Michal Freedhoff, Ph.D., to be Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP). In her opening statement, Dr. Freedhoff stated that during her time working for the legislative branch, she believes that she “earned a reputation for being fair,...

Lawyers, regulatory experts, and product stewardship professionals engaged in Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) compliance have an unusually rich array of conferences and trainings to attend next month.  Professionals of all levels and tenures can find programs to meet their requirements, from one-day key developments updates, to multi-day fundamentals training, to “TSCA Reform: Five Years Later,” the fifth anniversary of this celebrated symposium, presented by the Environmental Law...

Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®) and The Acta Group (Acta®) are pleased to announce that Dennis R. Deziel, former Regional Administrator, Region 1 (New England), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Todd Stedeford, Ph.D., DABT®, ERT, ATS, former Senior Science Advisor in EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), have joined our firms. Dennis R. Deziel, Senior Government Affairs Advisor for B&C and Acta, provides the firms’ clients with an...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) will be busy in 2021. Implementation of the 2016 amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) will continue to dominate the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT). In 2021, the EPA will need to complete outstanding risk evaluators of the ‘first 10′ chemicals and begin developing proposals for the section 6 risk management rules necessitated by the risk...