All Knowledge & Insights By Date

This week, we offer something a little different. My colleague Christopher Bryant, a senior regulatory consultant here at the firm, invited Daniella Taveau and Daniel Pearson into our studio to sit down and talk about trade issues. As you will hear, their conversation ranged far and wide, hitting upon all aspects of the trade discussion which might be relevant to anyone working in the chemical manufacturing space. Listeners will hear about developing a historical context in...

On March 11, 2019, Bloomberg Environment featured comments by James V. Aidala, Senior Government Affairs Consultant with Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®), regarding a plan for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to cut two months off the time it takes to review pesticide registrations. One chemical-industry consultant says the EPA’s ability to shave 60 days from its reviews depends on the kind of registration. “You’re not going to cut two months from a...

The International Estimated Short-Term Intake IESTI equations are used during the establishment of Codex Maximum Residue Limits. A recent proposal to revise the equations sparked international debate regarding selection of residue inputs and the appropriate level of consumer protection. The 49th Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues meeting recommended benchmarking the IESTI equations against distributions of actual exposures. Using publicly available data and models, this work compares dietary...

On March 11, 2019, the HazMat Management magazine republished Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.’s (B&C®) article “PHMSA Study Will Assess Aligning U.S. and International Regulations for Aerosol Containers.” HazMat Management magazine has covered Canadian environmental health and safety compliance issues for over 17 years. The full article on the HazMat Management page is now available online.

The Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) is, by its very nature, perennially a work in progress. The US is committed to global harmonisation in classifying chemical hazards, and the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) 2012 incorporation of the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of classification and labelling of chemicals into the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) was a big step forward in achieving global harmonisation. The road is long, however, and...

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released on March 6, 2019, a report entitled High-Risk Series: Substantial Efforts Needed to Achieve Greater Progress on High-Risk Areas. GAO’s high-risk program identifies government operations with vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, or in need of transformation to address economy, efficiency, or effectiveness challenges. GAO’s report describes the status of high-risk areas and outlines actions necessary to assure...

On March 4, 2019, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report titled Chemical Assessments:  Status of EPA’s Efforts to Produce Assessments and Implement the Toxic Substances Control Act.  The report describes the extent to which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Program has addressed identified challenges and made progress toward producing chemical assessments; and assesses whether EPA has...

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) routinely reviews and amends the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) to harmonize the HMR with international regulations and standards.  In February 2019, PHMSA’s Office of Hazardous Materials Safety (OHMS) contracted with the Cambridge Systematics (CS) Team to conduct a risk assessment for the transportation of aerosol containers to align U.S. and international regulations. ...

On March 1, 2019, Inside EPA quoted Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.’s (B&C®) Forecast for U.S. Federal and International Chemical Regulatory Policy 2019 regarding ongoing lawsuits that could foreshadow future challenges to the CBI proposal. The law firm Bergeson & Campbell says in its “Forecast 2019” publication that environmentalists' ongoing lawsuit on EPA's “Inventory notification rule … may presage a challenge to the CBI review rule.” The Environmental...

This week, I sat down with my colleague Sheryl Dolan, a senior regulatory consultant here at Bergeson & Campbell, to discuss all things pesticides: past, present, and future. In our discussion, Sheryl provides the historical and legal/regulatory background necessary to understand the current state of pesticide regulation, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) manages under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, or FIFRA, as we like to call it. Among other...