COVID-19 - TSCA

EPA Finalizes Test Methods And Guidance For Antimicrobial Registration

EPA has finalized new guidance and approved additional test methods for registering residually effective antimicrobial products, adopting with “minor modifications” interim guidance that it released in 2020 as part of the Trump-era COVID-19 pandemic response -- changes it says draw on research in the intervening years. The agency released both final documents on Oct. 7, saying in an accompanying news release that “[r]evisions to the guidance document and the associated methods were made based on data from EPA laboratory studies...

EPA Touts First Approval For Airborne Disinfectant

EPA has approved its first-ever airborne disinfectant for use against both bacteria and the virus that causes COVID-19, endorsing an air sanitizing spray from the cleaning-products giant Lysol as an effective tool to kill bacteria as well as a wide range of viruses including the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The agency announced Oct. 6 that it had registered Lysol Air Sanitizer as an airborne disinfectant “against bacteria and viruses such as influenza and coronaviruses,” based on testing of a surrogate virus that...

New ‘Evidence Map’ Aims To Link COVID-19 Risks To Chemical Exposures

Academic researchers have unveiled a new “map” of published research that could inform reviews of chemical exposures’ impacts on COVID-19 infection risks, severity and vaccine efficiency, specifically targeting substances California has labeled as top priorities -- though the document itself avoids drawing any overt conclusions on their effects. In a Sept. 8 blog post , researchers at the University of California-San Francisco’s Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE) describe their project as an early step in efforts to...

Disinfectant Maker Agrees To $1.5 Million COVID Settlement

EPA and the disinfectant manufacturer at the heart of a closely watched case challenging the agency’s COVID-19 enforcement approach have agreed to a settlement where the firm will pay a $1.5 million civil penalty and launch a “public service” informational campaign to walk back claims that one of its products could kill the coronavirus. The two sides in Tzumi Innovations v. EPA filed their proposed settlement with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on...

EPA Triggers Emerging Viral Pathogen Guidance For Monkeypox

EPA has invoked its emerging viral pathogen (EVP) guidance to authorize certain disinfectants to claim efficacy against the virus that causes the rare but spreading disease monkeypox -- triggering the same authority that allowed some products to be labeled as effective against COVID-19 in the early months of the pandemic. The agency announced on May 23 that it was triggering the EVP guidance for monkeypox, in response to recent cases in the United States. The disease is endemic in some...

COVID-19 Disinfectant Maker Agrees To $253,032 EPA Penalty

EPA has settled an enforcement case against a Texas firm that previously won emergency approval for a “durable” COVID-19 surface disinfectant, only to lose that emergency authorization in 2021 over allegations that it sold the product outside the narrow terms the agency set at the time. On March 10, EPA announced a settlement with Allied Bioscience , manufacturer of the disinfectant SurfaceWise2, that includes a $253,032 penalty for violations of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). “EPA investigations...

EPA Touts Tests Of Air Treatment Technology, Looks To Expand Studies

With COVID-19 disinfection research increasingly focused on air disinfection, EPA scientists say they have seen promising results from novel air treatment technologies, but are warning that real-world conditions make it hard to extrapolate their findings to conditions more variable than controlled laboratory tests. In a Feb. 9 webinar, “COVID-19: Evaluating Aerosol Treatment Technologies,” Office of Research and Development (ORD) scientists said they have had some success testing methods of killing airborne COVID-19 against one another -- a key step toward...

Group Says Plans For ‘Endemic’ COVID Must Consider Toxics Exposures

The environmental group Beyond Pesticides is arguing that any plans for managing COVID-19 as a persistent, “endemic” disease must consider the immune-system impacts of chemicals like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and pesticides, which it argues could make people more susceptible to the virus. In a Jan. 24 blog post , the group responds to a strategy for “living with” the coronavirus, floated by former public-health advisors to President Joe Biden -- which, it says, “misses out on an important...

Study Finds High Levels Of Little-Studied PFAS In Anti-Fogging Products

A new study from Duke University researchers says sprays and cloths used to prevent condensation on glasses contain high levels of two types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that had previously “flown under the scientific radar” but have been linked to “significant” cell-altering effects in limited testing. The study , “Characterization of Polyfluorinated Alkyl Substances (PFASs) Present in Commercial Anti-Fog Products and Their In Vitro Adipogenic Activity,” was released Jan. 5 by Duke University, and tested anti-fogging cloths and...

Court Seeks Firm’s Benefits Data To Help Settle COVID Case With EPA

A federal magistrate is requiring a wipes manufacturer to provide economic benefits materials early next month in an effort to help settle the company’s suit seeking to block a threatened EPA enforcement action over its product’s claimed benefits in preventing COVID-19. Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, issued a Nov. 18 order in Tzumi Innovations v. EPA requiring the manufacturer by Dec. 3 to produce “economic benefit” materials that...

EPA Extends Emerging Viral Pathogens Guidance ‘Indefinitely’

Citing the ‘ongoing’ nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EPA has announced that its emerging viral pathogens (EVP) guidance for antimicrobial pesticides has been extended and will remain in place indefinitely. “EPA recognizes that public health concerns due to COVID-19 are ongoing and therefore is indefinitely extending COVID-19 activation of the emerging viral pathogens (EVP) guidance for antimicrobial pesticides,” the agency said in a Nov. 19 statement announcing the extension. It added, “EPA’s EVP guidance for antimicrobial pesticides is a...

Industry Debates TSCA Reviews’ Role In Broad Supply Chain Slowdown

As a host of industry sectors grapple with supply chain issues and product shortages, industry attorneys are at odds over whether EPA’s struggles to swiftly review new chemical uses are worsening the problem, with some seeing toxics gridlock as a significant factor while another says the causes are too varied to pin blame on the agency. Speaking on a recent podcast episode, former EPA chemicals deputy Erik Baptist said slow or harsh Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reviews of new...

EPA Says COVID Research Laid Groundwork For Future Viral Work

An EPA microbiologist says the agency’s work on addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, including research into methods of detecting the coronavirus, could provide a foundation for addressing not just future pandemics but also potential biological attacks. During an Oct. 13 EPA webinar on its COVID-19 work, Sanjiv Shah, a senior microbiologist at the Homeland Security & Materials Management Division in the Office of Research and Development (ORD)’s Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response, said the agency’s research on the coronavirus...

EPA Drops COVID Policies That Eased Disinfectant Notification Mandates

EPA is terminating three Pesticide Registration Notice (PRN) amendments issued in 2020 that eased notification requirements for disinfectant manufacturers in order to alleviate the supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, saying there is no longer a “continuing need” for them. While the agency is offering a one-year grace period before the Sept. 15 termination takes effect, its move marks the latest step to roll back measures designed to boost availability of disinfectants that can kill the coronavirus, based...

EPA Aims To Settle COVID-19 Enforcement Suit After Partial Court Win

EPA is entering settlement talks with a company that sued over the agency’s aggressive enforcement of disinfectant rules as part of its COVID-19 response, moving to avert any adverse precedent after a judge partly rejected the firm’s claims that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), not EPA, has exclusive authority over its products. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York held a settlement conference Aug. 19 in Tzumi Innovations v. EPA , following a joint letter...

EPA Broadens Emergency Approval For COVID-19 Air Treatment

EPA has expanded its Trump-era emergency approval for an airborne antimicrobial treatment designed to kill the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 in indoor air, allowing industry to use the product “Grignard Pure” in four additional states -- up from the two the agency certified in January. The agency quietly updated its Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) exemption for the product on July 1, allowing its use in Maryland, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Texas. The original approval, issued on Jan. 14,...

EPA Scraps Approval Of COVID-19 Disinfectant, Citing ‘Misconduct’

EPA has reversed the Trump administration’s emergency approval of the surface coating SurfaceWise2, one of the few “durable” disinfectants effective against COVID-19, touting not only federal health authorities’ revised pandemic guidance downplaying the need for deep cleaning but also newly uncovered “misconduct” by the company. Less than a year after granting SurfaceWise2 the first-ever Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) public health emergency exemption waiver for a surface disinfectant, EPA announced on July 8 that it would block all...

EPA’s Work On Novel COVID-19 Disinfectants Faces ‘Real World’ Difficulty

Officials in EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) say they are struggling to replicate successful laboratory tests of advanced disinfectant technologies like ultraviolet C (UV-C) light emitters in “real-world” conditions, slowing the agency’s work on new devices that could help combat the COVID-19 pandemic. During a June 28 webinar hosted by the agency, Shawn Ryan, ORD’s director of homeland security and materials management, said that while the area of antimicrobial coatings “shows a lot of promise,” EPA is facing...

Judge Questions ‘Actual Controversy’ In COVID Disinfectant Suit

A federal district judge is questioning whether novel litigation testing EPA’s response to COVID-19 remains an “actual controversy,” in an order requiring both EPA and the manufacturer that brought the suit to provide updates on their handling of a line of cleaning wipes the agency said were unlawfully marketed as surface disinfectants. “’[I]n order for a federal court to retain jurisdiction over a case, an actual controversy must exist at all stages of review, not merely at the time the...

EPA Shifts COVID Focus From Surface Disinfectants Under New CDC Guide

EPA will no longer expedite reviews of surface disinfectants to fight the virus that causes COVID-19 and instead give higher priority to “novel products” that can work in the air, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its pandemic guidance to focus on airborne transmission. “Given this new information, EPA is no longer prioritizing Public Health Emergency requests for new products that address surface transmission of SARS-CoV-2,” EPA said in an April 28 release. Rather, EPA says,...

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