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Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.’s (B&C®) October 26, 2022, webinar “Food Safety Issues in the United States” is now available for on-demand viewing at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/8196944274166221318. During this one-hour webinar, Thomas J. Dunn, Managing Director, Flexpacknology LLC; Karin F. Baron, Senior Regulatory Consultant, B&C; and Lynn L. Bergeson Managing Partner, B&C, review the seven major rules of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), discuss...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has provided a report to Congress on its capacity to implement certain provisions of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (Lautenberg Act). The report provides point-in-time estimates of EPA’s current estimated capacity and resources needed to implement the 2016 Lautenberg Act amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). EPA states that it recognizes its responsibility to identify and implement...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) announced on October 19, 2022, the release of a report finding that life cycle assessments (LCA) of transportation fuels are valuable tools for measuring environmental impacts, but uncertainties remain in the current models and further research should be conducted to strengthen their reliability. The report recommends ways to improve models, increase reporting and transparency,...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on October 28, 2022, that it awarded $748,180 in research grant funding to three institutions for research to improve understanding of how people are exposed to per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in several communities throughout the country. EPA states that there is evidence that continued exposure above specific levels to certain PFAS may lead to adverse health effects. According to EPA, more data are needed to measure...

WEBINAR – Registration Is Open For “Articles under TSCA”: Register now to join Richard E. Engler, Ph.D., Eve Gartner, and Lynn L. Bergeson for the Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®) webinar “Articles under TSCA.” When the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was enacted in 1976, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) focused its attention on chemical substances and chemical mixtures, while largely exempting the regulation of chemicals in...

On October 26, 2022, the Biden Administration announced that it is expanding the Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Cybersecurity Initiative to the chemical sector. The White House’s fact sheet states that the majority of chemical companies are privately owned, so a collaborative approach is needed between the private sector and government. According to the fact sheet, “[t]he nation’s leading chemical companies and the government’s lead agency for the chemical sector -- the...

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (CDTSC) invites stakeholders to two external engagement sessions, on November 1 and November 3, 2022, to share their perspectives on an actionable definition of sustainable chemistry. CDTSC states that stakeholders’ participation and expertise can help refine a draft, consensus definition and set of criteria for sustainable chemistry. According to CDTSC, the draft definition and criteria were developed over the past six months by a...

Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®) is pleased to announce that Managing Partner Lynn L. Bergeson has been elected to serve as a Regent of the American College of Environmental Lawyers (ACOEL) for the 2022-2023 term. Ms. Bergeson has been a member of ACOEL since 2011. ACOEL is a professional association of distinguished lawyers who practice in the field of environmental law. Membership is by invitation, and members are recognized by their peers as preeminent in their field. ACOEL...

Download transcript. This week, I sat down with Dr. Claire Skentelbery, Director General, EuropaBio -- The European Association for Bioindustries. Many of you may know Claire from her prior role as Director General of the Nanotechnology Industries Association, where she energized that Brussels-based trade association to new and exciting heights. Claire has brought her considerable scientific, science policy, and trade association management skills to EuropaBio at an exciting time, as...

Bergeson & Campbell P.C. (B&C®) was pleased to present "Food Safety Issues in the United States." Thomas J. Dunn and Karin F. Baron discussed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and the incremental progress that the law has achieved in assuring food safety.  In addition, the webinar included a look at the New Era of Smarter Food Safety, a 2020 initiative meant to enhance FSMA, and improve food safety outcomes by leveraging technology. ...

In August, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced it is considering revisiting the Process Safety Management (PSM) standard. This column summarizes why OSHA is thinking of amending the standard and what you can do to engage in the process.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold a webinar on October 27, 2022, in its Computational Toxicology and Exposure Communities of Practice (CompTox Communities of Practice) series on “Analysis of High-Throughput Profiling Assays in Chemical Safety Screening.” The abstract for the webinar states that recent technological advancements have led to the development of new high-throughput profiling methods, such as transcriptomics, that can be used to screen rapidly chemicals...

October 26, 202212:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. (EDT) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports that 48 million people in the United States (1 in 6) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die each year from foodborne diseases. In 2011, President Obama signed into law the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in part to address this significant public health issue. FSMA is a comprehensive law intended to shift the focus of foodborne illness management from responding to outbreaks to...

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on October 19, 2022, entitled “Persistent Chemicals: EPA Should Use New Data to Analyze the Demographics of Communities with PFAS in Their Drinking Water.” The Congressional requesters asked GAO to examine per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination in drinking water and related state actions. GAO’s report examines what recent data from selected states show about the occurrence of PFAS in drinking water; the...

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development will hold a webinar on November 3, 2022, on the safer and sustainable innovation approach (SSIA) for more sustainable nanomaterials and nano-enabled products. According to OECD, SSIA is an approach aiming to boost safer and sustainable innovations by integrating safety and sustainability at an early stage of the design phase of innovative materials, products, applications, and processes. SSIA combines the...

On October 13, 2022, Earthjustice, on behalf of a coalition of environmental organizations and community advocates, petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to revoke the approval of approximately 600 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that were granted through low volume exemptions (LVE) or low release and low exposure exemptions (LoREX) to the premanufacture notice (PMN) requirements of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). In its October 13,...

On October 11, 2022, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released its final investigative report into “a massive fire and explosions” at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refinery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that occurred in June 2019. According to CSB, the incident occurred when a corroded pipe elbow ruptured, releasing process fluid into the refinery’s hydrofluoric acid (HF) alkylation unit. CSB states that over 5,000 pounds of “highly toxic” HF were released, “a...

According to a September 29, 2022, press release, the Japan Business Council in Europe (JBCE) has proposed a harmonization of the classification of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) “based on the latest knowledge on the effects of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in organisms.” JBCE notes that this classification is consistent with the classification of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). JBCE states that “the morphologies, physicochemical properties, and...

Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.’s (B&C®) October 11, 2022, webinar “Environmental, Social, and Governance Issues: A Business Imperative” is now available for on-demand viewing at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/4666338769766648838. During this one-hour webinar, experts from FTI Consulting, Christine DiBartolo, Senior Managing Director, Head of Americas Corporate Reputation, and Ken Ditzel, Senior Managing Director, explore the hows and whys of environmental, social, and...

Download transcript. This week I sat down with Doug Charnas, a nationally- recognized corporate and tax attorney and partner at McGlinchey, in its Washington, D.C. offices, and our own Dr. Richard Engler, Director of Chemistry at Bergeson & Campbell and at our consulting affiliate, The Acta Group. We discuss the recently reinstated Superfund Tax, which entities the tax applies to, what exactly is a taxable chemical and how to distinguish between taxable chemicals and taxable...