On June 20, 2014, the White House issued a “Presidential Memorandum — Creating a Federal Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators.” The strategy is directed to all federal agencies and is designed to “expand Federal efforts and take new steps to reverse pollinator losses and help restore populations to healthy levels.” The text of the memo lists a number of goals and comments on pollinator health, and has a focus...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on October 3, 2014, the availability of a final document entitled Guidance for Applying Quantitative Data to Develop Data-Derived Extrapolation Factors for Interspecies and Intraspecies Extrapolation (DDEF Guidance). EPA states that the DDEF Guidance “lays out methods for calculation of factors compensating for the application of animal toxicity data to humans (interspecies) and for compensating for sensitive populations...
October 23, 2014
TSCA Work Plan for Chemical Assessments: EPA Adds and Removes Chemicals Based on New Data
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on October 23, 2014, that it has updated its Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Work Plan for Chemical Assessments. According to EPA, the updated TSCA Work Plan reflects updated data submitted to EPA on chemical releases and potential exposures that EPA received as part of the Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) Rule and the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program. EPA removed or consolidated 16 chemicals, most of which are believed...
On October 1, 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a Significant New Use Rule (SNUR) for 15 related chemical substances commonly known as nonylphenols (NP) and nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE). For 13 NPs and NPEs, EPA would designate any use as a “significant new use,” and for two additional NPs, EPA would designate that any use other than use as an intermediate or use as an epoxy cure catalyst would constitute a “significant new...
Following the release last week of our Firm Clients and Friends Memorandum “Summary of Changes in the Chemical Safety Improvement Act (CSIA, S. 1009) and the Boxer TSCA Version Released September 18, 2014,” Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®) received copies of a number of documents relating to what is now described as the “Udall-Vitter Discussion Draft” (U-V DD) of the original CSIA (CSIA1). The documents obtained include: This Memorandum briefly summarizes these...
September 25, 2014
Summary of Changes in the Chemical Safety Improvement Act(CSIA, S. 1009) and the Boxer TSCA Version Released September 18, 2014
Background This analysis reviews the changes made to the original version of the Chemical Safety Improvement Act (CSIA) (identified as CSIA1 in this memorandum) based on Senator Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA) version of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform legislation released on September 18, 2014 (Boxer TSCA). This analysis attempts to analyze both the interim changes made to the bill and the changes that appear as underlined text in Boxer TSCA. Boxer TSCA was reportedly...
September 17, 2014
Spray Drift and Volatilization: Issues to Navigate Carefully as EPA Develops Registration Review Decisions
Spray drift and volatilization issues increasingly are significant issues in pesticide product risk assessments. Earlier this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued drafts of key guidance documents, which focused on issues that were key in the chlorpyrifos petition response, and more recently, at least one registration review decision that reflects current and still evolving EPA policy on spray drift and volatilization issues. How potential for spray drift and for...
On September 12, 2014, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) released its much anticipated draft Initial Priority Product Work Plan under the Safer Consumer Products Regulations. The Regulations require that DTSC, by October 2014, develop an Initial Priority Product Work Plan that describes product categories it will use to evaluate and identify product-chemical combinations to be added to the Priority Products. The Work Plan is available online and more detailed...
On August 9, 2014, the Government of Canada published in Gazette I (Vol. 148, no. 32) a proposal for adopting the Globally Harmonized System for Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). The regulatory proposal seeks to align current systems for classification, material safety data sheets (MSDS), and labels with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Hazard Communications Standard published on May 26, 2012 (HCS 2012) and the approaches used in other...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released on August 28, 2014, final risk assessments for three Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Work Plan chemicals — methylene chloride or dichloromethane (DCM), antimony trioxide (ATO), and 1,3,4,6,7,8-hexahydro-4,6,6,7,8,8,-hexamethylcyclopenta-[γ]-2-benzopyran (HHCB). The much anticipated release of these assessments marks a real milestone for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), and EPA is to be...