All Knowledge & Insights By Date

Registration has begun for the National Nanotechnology Initiative’s (NNI) September 10, 2019, webinar on “Respiratory Effects of Engineered Nanomaterials in Relation to Physicochemical Properties.”  The speaker will be Dr. Junfeng (Jim) Zhang, Nicholas School of the Environment and Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, and Dr. William Boyes, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will moderate.  NNI states that the interaction between engineered nanomaterials...

On August 1, 2019, the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI) announced the availability of a guidance document on the safe recovery and disposal of wastes containing nanomaterials.  According to VCI, wastes containing nanomaterials can be generated in the production or use of nanomaterials.  Such wastes can occur in the production of substances, mixtures, or products; in the processing and repair of products; or in the disposal of products at the end of their life...

Section 5(g) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish a statement of its findings after its review of TSCA Section 5(a) notices when EPA makes a finding that a new chemical substance or significant new use is not likely to present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment.  On August 12, 2019, EPA published a statement of its findings for June 2019.  84 Fed. Reg. 39828.  EPA notes that such statements apply...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released on August 9, 2019, the draft risk evaluation for 1-bromopropane (1-BP), the fourth of the first ten chemicals undergoing risk evaluation under the amended Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The draft risk evaluation states that there could be unreasonable risks to workers, occupational non-users, consumers, and bystanders under certain conditions of use. EPA did not find unreasonable risk to the environment under any of the...

The Pace Environmental Law Review (PELR) will publish a themed issue this winter concerning issues in the development and regulation of nanotechnology and biotechnology. Articles or essays should discuss the intersection between nanotechnology and/or biotechnology and environmental issues. PELR encourages submitters to take an interdisciplinary approach to nanotechnology and/or biotechnology from legal and other perspectives, including technology, science, public health, economics, or...

On August 7, 2019, the League of United Latin American Citizens, Pesticide Action Network North America, Natural Resources Defense Council, and other petitioners (Petitioners) filed a new petition in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals seeking judicial review of United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) orders denying their request that EPA revoke all tolerances and cancel all registrations for chlorpyrifos.  On August 8, 2019, New York, California, Hawaii, Maryland, Vermont,...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released on August 9, 2019, the draft risk evaluation for 1-bromopropane (1-BP), the fourth of the first ten chemicals undergoing risk evaluation under the amended Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).  EPA made the following initial determinations on risk: Unreasonable risks to workers, occupational non-users, and consumers under certain conditions of use.  EPA notes that these initial determinations are not its final determinations...

By Lynn L. Bergeson The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on August 1, 2019, that it is making additional information about new chemical notices available on its website.  The new web page, “Statistics for the New Chemicals Review Program under TSCA,” allows users to view and search monthly updates for any active Premanufacture Notice (PMN), Significant New Use Notice (SNUN), and Microbial Commercial Activity Notice (MCAN) of interest by case number. ...

By Lynn L. Bergeson On July 29, 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that $50 million of funding is now available for innovative research of technologies for trucks, off-road vehicles, and gaseous fuels research. Funded through DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), “it is important our trucking industry has access to advanced technologies, such as electrification and fuel cells, as a way to move goods efficiently and economically,” stated...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Ligia Duarte Botelho, M.A. On July 26, 2019, U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) announced that he is working with U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on the Restore Environmental Sustainability to Our Renewable Energy (RESTORE) Act. In an effort to end what Toomey describes as an “egregious form of corporate welfare that hurts the environment and drives up the cost of everything,” the RESTORE Act would abolish the corn ethanol mandate under the Renewable Fuel...