All Knowledge & Insights By Date

On June 30, 2025, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a report entitled 2D Titanium Carbide MXenes: Case Study Report on Advanced Materials. Within OECD’s Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN), the Steering Group on Advanced Materials conducted a case study on the potential issues of 2D titanium carbide MXenes. The report describes MXenes as “a group of [two-dimensional (2D)] advanced materials composed of transition metal carbides or...

As reported in our June 28, 2025, blog item, on June 16, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit requesting that litigation over its 2024 final risk management rule regulating chrysotile asbestos under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) be held in abeyance for an additional six months. Texas Chemistry Council, et al. v. EPA, No. 24-60193. According to the filing, EPA intended to initiate a new...

This week, I discuss with my colleague, Kelly N. Garson, a Senior Associate here at B&C and Regulatory Consultant for The Acta Group (Acta®), B&C’s consulting affiliate, the implications of the demise of Chevron deference, especially as it relates to Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) litigation. We discuss what Chevron deference is, other types of deference that are still very much a part of judicial review, and how Chevron’s elimination could impact the implementation of the...

On June 23, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) extended the postponement of the effective date of certain regulatory provisions of its December 17, 2024, final risk management rule for trichloroethylene (TCE) until August 19, 2025. 90 Fed. Reg. 26453. As reported in our April 15, 2025, blog item, after EPA issued the final rule in December 2024, it received multiple petitions for an administrative stay of the effective date. EPA denied the requests, and the companies submitted...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on June 18, 2025, the release of its proposed method for ranking chemicals in the food supply. According to the document, the systematic post-market assessment of food chemicals consists of the following steps: signal detection, triage, prioritization, scoping, scientific assessment (safety, risk, and/or hazard), risk management review, and risk management action. FDA states that it will publish a full description of the process later in 2025...

On June 25, 2025, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®), the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), and the George Washington University (GWU) Milken Institute School of Public Health presented “TSCA Reform -- Nine Years Later.” This virtual conference marked the ninth Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Annual Conference, reflecting on the accomplishments and challenges since the implementation of the 2016 Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (Lautenberg Act) and...

On June 6, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that it has prepared a revised draft environmental impact statement (EIS) and revised draft plant pest risk assessment (PPRA) evaluating the potential environmental impacts and plant pest risk that may result from the approval of a petition for nonregulated status for blight-tolerant American chestnut (Castanea dentata) from the State University of New York College of...

On June 16, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a final rule making technical amendments to the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) to conform the C.F.R. to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California’s vacatur of USDA’s May 2020 final rule for organisms developed using genetic engineering. 90 Fed. Reg. 25123. The rule was effective June 16, 2025. As reported in our May 18, 2020, memorandum, the...

The National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) announced on July 1, 2025, that it is gathering input to modernize U.S. biotechnology product regulation and create simpler, faster, science-based pathways to market. According to NSCEB, this input will guide follow-on work to its April 2025 report, which called for streamlining regulation of biotechnology products. NSCEB seeks “concrete, actionable ideas across sectors, including defense, industrial products, food,...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that it received a petition from Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha, Limited seeking a determination of nonregulated status for ISK-311NR-4 Phalaenopsis (moth orchid) that has been developed using genetic engineering to produce a blue-purple flower color. 90 Fed. Reg. 23666. According to APHIS, the petition states that the information provided indicates that ISK-311NR-4 Phalaenopsis is unlikely to pose...