Archives

July 8, 2025

TSCA Reform — Nine Years Later: B&C, ELI, and GWU Conclude Another Amazing Conference 

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...
June 28, 2025

EPA to Reconsider Asbestos Part 1 Risk Management Rule Following Legal Challenge

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 rule regulating chrysotile asbestos under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) be held in abeyance for an additional six months. According to the filing, EPA intends to initiate a new notice-and-comment rulemaking to reconsider certain provisions of the rule. The litigation, Texas Chemistry Council, et al. v. EPA,...
June 18, 2025

EPA Releases Draft Charge Questions for SACC Meeting on Phthalates and Memorandum on Proposed Refinement for Estimating DBP Skin Exposures

On June 16, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of the draft charge questions for discussion at the upcoming Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) meeting to review all documents released thus far on the risk evaluations of five phthalates. SACC will review the draft risk evaluations for dibutyl phthalate (DBP), di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), and dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCHP), as well as cross-cutting documents related to DBP, DEHP, DCHP, butyl...
June 12, 2025

Chemical and Material Risk Management Program TSCA Market Analysis — A Conversation with Patricia Underwood, Ph.D., DABT, MBA and Richard E. Engler, Ph.D.

Download now. This week, I discuss with Patricia Underwood, Ph.D., DABT, MBA, Chief Toxicologist, Principal Director – Chemical and Material Risk Management, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Department of Defense, and my colleague, Richard E. Engler, Ph.D., Director of Chemistry for B&C and The Acta Group (Acta®), our consulting affiliate, the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD) recent Request for Information (RFI) on chemicals undergoing U.S. Environmental Protection...
June 2, 2025

DOD RFI Seeks Information on Certain Chemicals Undergoing TSCA Section 6 Risk Evaluation

On May 27, 2025, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) issued a request for information (RFI) to gather information to identify and assess critical applications for DOD and the defense industrial base (DIB) that necessitate the use of existing chemicals undergoing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Section 6 risk evaluation process. The RFI states that it will help the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and...
May 30, 2025

TSCA Section 21 Petition Seeks Reconsideration of 2024 Rule Regarding Procedures for Chemical Risk Evaluation

On May 15, 2025, the Center for Environmental Accountability (CEA) filed a petition under Section 21 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requesting that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reconsider the 2024 final rule regarding procedures for chemical risk evaluation under TSCA and initiate a rulemaking to amend certain provisions in 40 C.F.R. Part 702, subpart B. According to CEA, the current process “has led to overly conservative risk conclusions and, in turn,...
May 8, 2025

EPA Seeks Public Comment on Candidates for Peer Reviewers for Several Phthalates

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on April 30, 2025, that it is requesting public comments on candidates who are interested and available to serve as ad hoc reviewers assisting its Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) in the peer review of the Agency’s data, methods, models, and approaches for the draft Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) risk evaluations of dibutyl phthalate (DBP), di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), and dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCHP). According...
May 8, 2025

Setting the Record Straight: New Chemical Review Needs Scientists

On May 2, 2025, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the “[n]ext phase of organizational improvements to better integrate science into agency offices.” As part of this reorganization effort, Administrator Zeldin introduced the creation of the Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions (OASES) within the Office of the Administrator. According to Zeldin, OASES will “align research and put science at the forefront of the agency’s...
May 5, 2025

Court Grants EPA’s Request for Abeyance, Denies EPA’s Request for Voluntary Remand in Challenge to Risk Evaluation Rule

As reported in our March 31, 2025, blog item, on March 21, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard oral argument in a case challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) May 3, 2024, final rule amending the procedural framework rule for conducting risk evaluations under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union (USW) v. EPA,...
March 31, 2025

EPA Argues for Remand of Final Rule Amending Risk Evaluation Framework

On March 21, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard oral argument in a case challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) May 3, 2024, final rule amending the procedural framework rule for conducting risk evaluations under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union (USW) v. EPA, Consolidated Case No. 24-1151. If you have a...