The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on August 18, 2022, that it is accepting nominations for the 2023 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards from companies or institutions that have developed a new green chemistry process or product that helps protect human health and the environment. The awards again include a category to recognize technology that reduces or eliminates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. EPA will hold a webinar on September 28, 2022, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m....
NACD and Richard E. Engler, Ph.D., Director of Chemistry, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®) offered a special pre-ChemEdge workshop, "Situational Regulatory Awareness – What to Do When a Single Chemical Product Is Subject to Three Major Regulations – TSCA, FIFRA, and FFDCA." Many chemicals regulated under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) also fall under the Federal Insecticide, Rodenticide, and Fungicide Act (FIFRA) and/or the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act...
August 17, 2022
EPA Updates Safer Chemical Ingredients List, Adding 22 Chemicals and Changing the Status of One Chem
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on August 11, 2022, that it updated the Safer Chemical Ingredients List (SCIL), “a living list of chemicals by functional-use class that EPA’s Safer Choice program has evaluated and determined meet the Safer Choice Standard.” EPA added 22 chemicals to the SCIL. EPA states that to expand the number of chemicals and functional-use categories on the SCIL, it encourages...
August 16, 2022
NASEM Recommends That EPA Conduct Ecological Risk Assessment of UV Filters Found in Sunscreen, Including Titanium Oxide and Zinc Oxide
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released on August 9, 2022, a report entitled Review of Fate, Exposure, and Effects of Sunscreens in Aquatic Environments and Implications for Sunscreen Usage and Human Health. NASEM was tasked by Congress and funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to undertake a consensus study of the potential risk of ultraviolet (UV) filters on already threatened aquatic environments and the potential...
August 16, 2022
OMB Completes Review of Proposed Rule to Designate PFOA and PFOS as CERCLA Hazardous Substances
review of a proposed rule that would designate perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Such designations would require facilities to report on PFOA and PFOS releases that meet or exceed the reportable quantity. Publication of the proposed rule in the Federal Register will begin a public comment period. As reported in our October 19,...
August 16, 2022
Lynn L. Bergeson and Richard E. Engler, Ph.D., “Optimizing the Toxic Substances Control Act to Achieve Greener Chemicals,” NR&E, Summer 2022.
The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) offers tremendous unrealized potential to promote the development of more sustainable industrial chemicals. Despite the fact that Congress significantly amended TSCA in 2016 specifically to diminish the human health and environmental footprint of industrial chemicals, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is interpreting the revised law in ways that ironically discourage the commercialization of new chemicals and reinforce a “new chemical...
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) New Chemicals Program held a webinar on July 27, 2022, to provide an in-depth look at its analysis of common issues that cause EPA to have to reconduct risk assessments (“rework”) of new chemicals. In June 2022, EPA announced a broad outreach effort to describe and to discuss with stakeholders how EPA evaluates engineering data (i.e., data related to environmental release and...
August 15, 2022
Lynn L. Bergeson, “EPA Eases TSCA Testing Demands,” Chemical Processing, August 15, 2022.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued two new documents for recipients of Section 4 test orders under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The good news is these documents offer relief to stakeholders who otherwise would be responsible for chemical testing costs for certain chemicals they produced or imported.
On August 11, 2022, Chemical Watch quoted Lynn L. Bergeson, Managing Partner, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®), and Richard E. Engler, Ph.D., Director of Chemistry, B&C, regarding updated Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) test order policies that no longer allow companies to stop manufacturing a substance to avoid fulfilling an agency data generation mandate. Lynn Bergeson and Rich Engler from law firm Bergeson & Campbell said the new policy seems to be a logical...