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On July 13, 2021, Maine became the first state to enact Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation for packaging. On August 6, 2021, Oregon followed, enacting a similar EPR law applicable to packaging. Other states are poised to pass similar legislation. This article discusses the concept of EPR and summarizes the state legislation.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on October 15, 2021, that it is updating the confidential status of 377 chemical identities and will include these chemical identities on the next update of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory, planned for winter 2022. The TSCA Inventory is a list of all existing chemical substances manufactured, processed, or imported in the United States. According to EPA, the Inventory contains 86,607 chemicals, of which...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Ligia Duarte Botelho, M.A. On September 30, 2021, DOE announced the launch of a new prize that will award up to $2.5 million in cash prizes to ten groups and organizations that support entrepreneurship and innovation in historically underserved communities. The Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize acknowledges that underserved populations have been and continue to be more susceptible to the negative impact of climate change, global warming, and pollution....

Download transcript All Things Chemical will reach our 3rd anniversary on October 23rd and we want to share this celebration with you. As we look back on the last three years I wanted to bring back an older episode from the summer of 2020, “Implementing Lautenberg — A Conversation with former OPPT Director Jeffery T. Morris, Ph.D.” During this episode I spoke with Jeff Morris about how the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics implemented Lautenberg back in 2016, and how TSCA can be...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) announced on October 14, 2021, several actions intended to enhance scientific integrity, including establishing two internal science policy advisory councils, creating a new senior-level career position to serve as a science policy advisor to the Assistant Administrator, and making further improvements to policies and procedures. The announcement includes the following actions: New...

On October 14, 2021, Lynn L. Bergeson, Managing Partner, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®), was quoted by Bloomberg Law regarding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) plan to release a national strategy to reduce plastic waste, improve recycling, and boost the market for recycled goods. Ms. Bergeson discussed these issues during the "Moving Towards “Cradle-to-Cradle”: Regulatory Drivers and Barriers in Reducing Waste and Achieving Sustainable...

On September 14, 2021, the United Nations (UN) published an electronic version of the ninth revised edition (Rev 9) of the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) available for free for consultation purposes. The amendments to the eighth revision of the GHS (Rev 8) include extensive revision of Chapter 2.1 (explosives) to address explosion hazard determination better when explosives are not in transit; the revision of decision logic; the revision of...

The European Commission (EC) announced on October 8, 2021, that the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed approved the EC’s proposal to ban the use of titanium dioxide (E171) as a food additive. The EC states that its proposal “is based on a scientific opinion by the European Food Safety Authority, which concluded that E171 could no longer be considered as safe when used as a food additive, in particular due to the fact that concerns regarding genotoxicity...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Ligia Duarte Botelho, M.A. On October 7, 2021, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) announced that the Green Ribbon Science Panel (GRSP) will hold a meeting from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (EDT) on November 5, 2021. The meeting will focus on microplastic research and policy.   GRSP was established to act as a resource for the implementation of California’s Green Chemistry Law. GRSP provides technical advice to the DTSC...