Articles

As a candidate and now as president, President Trump has been uncharacteristically predictable in systematically dismantling signature environmental policies of prior administrations and ceding the United States’ leadership in combating climate change to other global powers. The administration’s industrial chemicals management policy has been less transparent and predictable, however. Some may have interpreted candidate Trump’s notable silence on the campaign trail as support for Toxic...

The release of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Section 5(a)(3)(C) determination for a new polymer, P-16-0510, represents a positive step in implementing the New Chemicals Program under the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act. The new chemical is intended to be used as a deodorizer in a variety of products, including floor cleaners, cat litter, fabric freshener sprays and other consumer products. This column explains why this is a significant development.

The ‘right-to-know’ has been a foundational element of U.S. environmental law and policy for decades. As more information becomes known about the potential health and environmental impacts of chemical substances in industrial, commercial, and especially consumer products, the public’s interest in product ingredients has sharply increased. Recently this interest has taken a new direction, one targeting consumer cleaning products. Two state initiatives, originating in opposite sides of the...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) April 2018 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Chemical Substance Inventory is now available (https://www.epa.gov/tsca-inventory/ how-access-tsca-inventory). For the first time, the Inventory includes a field designating substances that are “active” in U.S. commerce.

While the intention of food contact regulations in both China and the US is to protect public health, the approaches taken, the obligations for industry and other facets of the regulations differ in notable ways. This article overviews the two regulatory systems, highlighting key similarities and differences between the emerging regulatory regime in China and the established US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food contact regulations. 

On June 21, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued guidance to assist companies in creating structurally descriptive chemical names for substances whose specific chemical identities are claimed confidential and for listing substances on the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Chemical Substance Inventory. Because the need to retain chemical identity confidentiality is critical, this guidance is an essential read.

Reducing childhood lead exposure has long been a focus of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Flint, Mich., water crisis has inspired renewed concerns with lead exposure and heightened attention on the hazards occasioned by exposure to dust and dust-lead, especially exposure to children. On July 2, 2018, EPA proposed to lower the dust-lead hazard standards for homes with dust-lead issues. This column summarizes the proposal.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) issued a July 4, 2018, press release announcing the availability of new guidance on how to assess the safety of nanoscience and nanotechnology applications. The guidance covers novel foods, food contact materials, food and feed additives, and pesticides, taking into account new developments that have taken place since publication of the previous guidance in 2011. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) expanded on June 12, 2018, the list of chemicals subject to reporting under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The list now includes a category containing 13 nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE). NPEs are nonionic surfactants used in a variety of industrial applications and consumer products including adhesives, wetting agents, emulsifiers, stabilizers, dispersants, defoamers, cleaners, paints and...

On March 16, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed to add hazardous waste aerosol cans to the category of “universal wastes” regulated under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations, codified at Title 40 of the C.F.R., Part 273. 83 Fed. Reg. 11654. According to EPA, this action would benefit the many manufacturing facilities and others that generate and manage large quantities of hazardous waste aerosol cans.

On May 4, 2018, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) proposed a rule to establish the first ever National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NBFDS) mandated by Congress in 2016. This column discusses the proposal, what it intends to achieve, and its implications.

On May 2, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a Federal Register notice announcing publication of its Final 2016 Effluent Guidelines Program Plan. The Plan describes EPA's Clean Water Act rulemakings and other actions intended to control industrial wastewater pollution. 

Changes to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) occasioned by enactment of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act have fundamentally changed the way the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reviews new and assesses existing chemical substances in surprising and subtle ways. Our 26-professionals TSCA practice in Washington, D.C. has been “doing TSCA” for a very long time. We offer our European colleagues practical insights into the new law and EPA’s...

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced on March 2, 2018, that it will begin enforcing certain requirements of the 2017 final rule on occupational exposure to beryllium in general industry, construction, and shipyards on May 11, 2018, and that it will delay enforcement of certain other standards. This column discusses the final rule and OSHA’s recent enforcement policy. 

We all knew it was coming, and the proposal has finally arrived. On February 8, 2018, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt signed a proposed rule regarding user fees for the administration of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). As amended by the Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, TSCA provides the EPA the authority to levy fees on certain chemical manufacturers, including importers and processors, to “provide a...

In just a few short months, on August 30, 2018, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) revisions to its Proposition 65 (Prop 65) Article 6 “clear and reasonable warnings” regulations will come into force. By then, companies must be compliant with the revised regulations for consumer product, occupational and environmental exposures.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has published a March 23, 2018, report entitled Evaluation of in vitro methods for human hazard assessment applied in the OECD Testing Programme for the Safety of Manufactured Nanomaterials.

A petition filed under Section 21 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was one of the first actions reviewed by a federal district court since TSCA was substantially rewritten in June 2016.The rulings described below pose interesting and potentially formidable challenges for TSCA stakeholders.

In December 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule prohibiting entities from asserting claims of confidential business information (CBI) for certain documents related to the export, import, and transit of hazardous waste. Manufacturers that have historically relied on assertions of CBI should be aware of this change. 

When the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was legislatively ‘modernised’ in June 2016, no one in the legal community doubted litigation was in our collective future. We have not been disappointed. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its legal counsel for these purposes, the US Department of Justice (DoJ), are facing multiple lawsuits in several federal appeals courts and the very real possibility of more litigation deriving from TSCA Section 21 citizen petitions in the light...