On July 27, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated a final significant use rule (SNUR) for long-chain perfluoroalkyl carboxylate (LCPFAC) and perfluoroalkyl sulfonate chemical substances. 85 Fed. Reg. 45109. The final SNUR requires persons to notify EPA at least 90 days before commencing the manufacture (including import) or processing of these chemical substances for the significant new uses described in the notice. The required significant new use notification...
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) are now assembling an ad hoc committee to identify emerging scientific and technological advances from across a broad range of disciplines that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD) should consider in its research planning to support EPA’s mission for protecting human health and the environment. In addition, according to NASEM, the committee will...
This week’s All Things Chemical™ Podcast will be of interest to readers of the TSCAblog™. A brief description of the episode written by Lynn L. Bergeson is below. This week I sat down with Congressman John M. Shimkus, a Member of the United States House of Representatives for the 15th District of Illinois. As listeners of the podcast know well, Congressman Shimkus is a senior Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In this capacity, Congressman...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
June 30, 2020
Industry Associations Petition EPA to Develop Risk Management Procedural Rule under TSCA
On June 3, 2020, the American Coatings Association (ACA), National Association of Manufacturers, Toy Association, National Association of Home Builders, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop a risk management procedural rule under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). According to ACA’s June 15, 2020, press release, ACA “believes that a procedural rule would provide guard rails to ensure consistency, transparency and effective...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a Federal Register notice on January 27, 2020, identifying the preliminary lists of manufacturers (including importers) of the 20 chemical substances that EPA designated as high-priority substances for risk evaluation and for which fees will be charged. 85 Fed. Reg. 4661. During the comment period, manufacturers (including importers) are required to self-identify as manufacturers of a high-priority substance irrespective of whether...
This week’s All Things Chemical™ Podcast will be of interest to readers of the TSCAblog™. A brief description of the episode written by Lynn L. Bergeson is below. This week I sat down with EPA Assistant Administrator Alexandra Dunn. As many of our listeners know, Alex Dunn heads the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention and is responsible for implementing the nation’s industrial and agricultural chemical laws, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and...
During the week of June 15, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California heard from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final three witnesses: Dr. Joyce Tsuji, Dr. Ellen Chang, and Dr. Tala Henry. Food & Water Watch, Inc. v. EPA, Case No. 3:17-cv-02162-EMC. Dr. Tsuji did not dispute that fluoride can be a neurotoxin at “high enough levels.” Dr. Tsuji contended that the scientific literature remains too limited to establish...
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will hold a public webinar on July 1, 2020, to receive information from interested parties about changes to CPSC’s Publicly Available Consumer Product Safety Information Database, www.SaferProducts.gov, that are in development to improve the website’s usefulness and navigability. CPSC states in its June 18, 2020, Federal Register notice that based, in part, on input from a March 2019 public hearing, CPSC is holding the webinar to show the...
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will hold a public webinar on July 1, 2020, to receive information from interested parties about changes to CPSC’s Publicly Available Consumer Product Safety Information Database, www.SaferProducts.gov, that are in development to improve the website’s usefulness and navigability. CPSC states in its June 18, 2020, Federal Register notice that based, in part, on input from a March 2019 public hearing, CPSC is holding the webinar to show the...
On June 16, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the winners of the 2020 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. EPA states that this year’s winners “have developed new and innovative green chemistry technologies that turn potential environmental challenges into business opportunities, spurring innovation and economic development.” The 2020 winners and their innovative technologies are: EPA plans to recognize the winners at a ceremony in...
This week’s All Things Chemical™ Podcast will be of interest to readers of the TSCAblog™. A brief description of the episode written by Lynn L. Bergeson is below. As we are now into June, Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) aficionados will be quick to note that “new TSCA” is now almost four years old. Passage in June 2016 of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act occasioned EPA’s implementation of a...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on June 12, 2020, that it is opening a public comment period for a manufacturer-requested risk evaluation of octamethylcyclotetra-siloxane (D4), a chemical used to make other silicone chemicals and as an ingredient in some personal care products. EPA states that the manufacturer-requested risk evaluation of D4 is the third evaluation of this kind to be requested under the amended Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). EPA...
June 12, 2020
Bench Trial in Challenge to EPA’s Denial of Fluoride Petition Will Resume on June 15 and Is Available Online
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California began hearing oral arguments on June 8, 2020, in a case seeking a rulemaking under Section 6 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to prohibit the addition of fluoridation chemicals to drinking water supplies. Food & Water Watch, Inc. v. EPA, Case No. 3:17-cv-02162-EMC. The plaintiffs filed suit following the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) denial of a TSCA Section 21 petition requesting it...
On June 3, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a final significant new use rule (SNUR) on long-chain perfluoroalkyl carboxylate (LCPFAC) and perfluoroalkyl sulfonate (PFAS) chemical substances. On March 3, 2020, EPA published a proposed supplemental SNUR for LCPFAC chemical substances that would make inapplicable the exemption for persons who import a subset of LCPFAC chemical substances as part of surface...