On September 1, 2009, the United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive (HSE) announced proposed revisions to the Biocidal Product Regulations 2001, which implement the European Union’s Biocidal Products Directive 98/8/EC concerning the harmonization of the European market for biocidal products. The revisions would keep biocides on the market after May 14, 2010; update references in the 2001 regulations; and adjust the 2001 regulations. According to HSE, the proposed revisions do...
September 4, 2009
EPA Announces Interagency Nanotechnology Implications Grantees Workshop
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the Interagency Nanotechnology Implications Grantees Workshop, which will feature presentations on recent research by EPA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH/NIEHS), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and Department of Energy (DOE) grant researchers. According to EPA, the November 9-10, 2009, meeting “will...
Today the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) published Annex XV dossiers for the identification of 15 chemicals as substances of very high concern (SVHC) under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation. The substances were proposed by European Union member states and the European Commission, and are identified as carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic to reproduction (CMR), or persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT). ECHA asks that...
TSCA/FIFRA/NTP/EPCRA Reporting Year 2008 Preliminary TRI Data Now Available Through The TRI Website – On August 19, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program announced that EPA has released preliminary TRI data for reporting year 2008. EPA took the “unprecedented step” of releasing the raw data prior to its completing its data analysis. EPA states that it plans to analyze the data and publish the national analysis once it is completed....
September 1, 2009
Lynn L. Bergeson, “Washington: Marketing Green,” Manufacturing Today, September 2009.
The growth in green marketing is getting a lot of attention these days, especially from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the federal agency tasked with preventing unfair and deceptive trade practices. Mindful of potential false and misleading advertising, FTC has been revising its Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims, known as the “Green Guides.”...
September 1, 2009
Lynn L. Bergeson, “Conquering Heroic Challenges: A Look at Hot Legal and Regulatory Issues You Need to Know,” NACD Chemical Distributor, September, 2009.
If the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD) had to select a song today that best reflects a typical member’s profile, it would have to be “It’s Not Easy To Be Me”. Challenged commercially by the credit crunch, escalating energy, labor, and raw material costs, squeezed by market pressures spawned by a badly damaged economy, and reeling from legal and regulatory challenges that are mushrooming exponentially, NACD members really do need red capes emblazoned with...
September 1, 2009
Lynn L. Bergeson, “Green Nanotechnology: Straddling Promise and Uncertainty,” Natural Resources & Environment, Fall, 2009.
This article describes green nanotechnology and discusses the reasons why traditional chemicals-assessment and management approaches may not be adequate in all cases in the near term when applied to nanomaterials. It outlines the reasons why green nanotechnology may serve as an alternative approach to chemicals assessment when applied to nanomaterials and suggests some measures to advance the goals of green nanotechnology....
August 28, 2009
CPSC Holds Public Hearing on CPSC Agenda, Priorities, and Strategic Plan for FY 2011
On August 25, 2009, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) held a public hearing to receive comments about its agenda and priorities for CPSC during fiscal year (FY) 2011, which begins October 1, 2010, and about its current strategic plan. CPSC invited participation by members of the public, and representatives from the Consumers Union, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN), Thermo Fisher Scientific, National...
August 27, 2009
Lynn L. Bergeson Will Speak at Conference on “Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation: Securing the Promise of Nanotechnologies”
Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. is pleased to announce that Lynn L. Bergeson will be speaking at the September 10-11, 2009, international conference on “Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation: Securing the Promise of Nanotechnologies,” in London. The London School of Economics, Chatham House, the Environmental Law Institute, and the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars have spent the past year examining issues of...
August 26, 2009
PEN Consumer Product Inventory Includes over 1,000 Items
Yesterday the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) announced that its inventory of nanotechnology-enabled consumer products includes over 1,000 items. When PEN began the inventory in March 2006, it included 212 products. According to PEN, health and fitness items represent 60 percent of the products listed. More products are based on nanoscale silver than any other nanomaterial, with 259 products (26 percent of the inventory) using...