INSIDE TSCA

PEER Charges EPA ‘Abandoning’ Mandated Chemical-Testing Oversight

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is criticizing EPA for failing to hold statutorily required meetings of an interagency committee that recommends chemicals for testing or reporting, charging the agency has accelerated its abandonment of chemical oversight under the Trump administration. Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) section 4(e) created the EPA-led Interagency Testing Committee (ITC) to make recommendations to the EPA administrator on prioritizing and selecting chemicals for testing or information reporting to meet the coordinated data needs of several...

5th Circuit Finalizes Argument Date In Methylene Chloride Rule Litigation

The 5th Circuit has finalized June 3 as the oral argument date in consolidated litigation over the Biden-era TSCA rule limiting usages of the solvent methylene chloride, advancing what one industry attorney recently described as a positive step for industry after the liberal D.C. Circuit heard oral argument in separate TSCA litigation in March. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in an April 23 letter formally set oral argument in East Fork Enterprises, et al., v. EPA...

D.C. Circuit Allows Inhance To Intervene In TSCA Plastic Fluorination Case

The D.C. Circuit has granted plastics manufacturer Inhance Technologies’ request to intervene in litigation between environmentalists and EPA seeking to compel the agency to expedite regulation of PFAS in fluorinated plastic containers under TSCA. In an April 22 per curium order , a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit says that upon consideration of Inhance’s motion to intervene and responses from EPA and environmentalists in Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), et...

Industries Urge EPA To Remove PVC Pipes From TSCA Evaluation’s Scope

Pipe manufacturers and other industry groups are urging EPA to remove PVC pipes and other articles from the scope of its pending TSCA risk evaluation of vinyl chloride, arguing the minimal amounts of vinyl chloride in the pipes do not present risk. By contrast, water utilities are urging EPA to carefully consider PVC pipes in its evaluation while warning that any finding that the pipes present unreasonable risk would be problematic because of the limited alternatives to PVC pipes and...

5th Circuit Extends Pause In TSCA 1,4-Dioxone Risk Evaluation Challenge

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has extended, at EPA’s request, an ongoing pause in a company’s unusual challenge to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) risk evaluation of the solvent 1,4-dioxane, after the agency requested another month for Trump appointees to determine how they want to proceed with the litigation. Circuit Judge Jerry E. Smith granted April 18 EPA’s requests for continued abeyance in Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) v. EPA and a protective order for...

California Advances Bill To Ban Certain Chemicals From Food Packaging

California lawmakers are advancing a bill that would ban, beginning in 2027, the sale of food packaging that contains intentionally added antimony trioxide, bisphenols, or ortho-phthalates, amid opposition from industry groups that argue the chemicals are safe and any restrictions should only come after a review by the state’s green chemistry program. The bill, AB 1148 by Assemblywoman LaShae Sharp-Collins (D), is scheduled to be heard April 22 by the Assembly Judiciary Committee, after having passed the Assembly Environmental Safety...

NASA, Industry Experts Warn TSCA Exemptions Fall Short Of Needed Relief

NASA and industry experts are warning that national security and critical use exemptions to TSCA prohibitions may not fully protect these chemical uses because supply chain constraints may still make it difficult to obtain necessary chemicals. While federal agencies like NASA have successfully obtained exemptions from chemical bans under section 6(g) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for mission-critical uses, those carveouts are often not enough to ensure continued access, Tim Appleman, chemical and risk management program manager at...

EPA Official Sees IT Appropriation As ‘Game Changer’ For TSCA Reviews

A key EPA TSCA official is expressing optimism that Congress’ $17 million appropriation to upgrade agency IT systems will further speed efforts in reducing a long-running backlog of new chemical assessments while touting steps the Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is taking to speed reviews. “There’s been $17 million dedicated for our TSCA IT improvements, which I really think is going to hopefully be a game changer for us,” Shari Barash, director of the agency’s New...

Experts Urge Industry To Share Occupational Exposure Data With EPA

Industry experts are urging chemical manufacturers to proactively share occupational exposure data with EPA during TSCA risk evaluations of existing chemicals, even if the data was collected for other regulatory purposes, and provide contextual details that could result in more accurate assessments. In the absence of data, EPA will substitute “very conservative assumptions,” Andrew Maier, principal health scientist at Integral Consulting LLC, said April 15 at the American Chemistry Council’s annual GlobalChem conference in Washington, D.C. “We definitely found that...

EPA’s Deputy Chief Welcomes Industry As A ‘Partner’ On TSCA Reform

EPA Acting Deputy Administrator Chad McIntosh is promising additional regulatory and other policy reforms beyond the dozens Administrator Lee Zeldin has already announced, noting the Trump administration’s agreement with the chemical industry that significant changes to implementing TSCA are needed. “We're not going to get in the way of America manufacturing, whether it be chemical manufacturing, energy production, auto production, etc. We're going to facilitate it and write a rigorous implementation of the laws based on English,” McIntosh told American...

House, Senate Panels Focus Early TSCA Reform Push On New Chemicals

Key House and Senate committees are eyeing targeted measures in their initial efforts to overhaul TSCA, according to two staffers, with an early focus on the law’s new chemicals program, signaling such efforts are unlikely to accommodate broad -- and partisan -- reforms to the 2016 law that some in industry may seek. Jake Kennedy, a senior professional staff member for Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), told the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) annual...

Industry Attorneys Fear Problems Stemming From TSCA ‘Framework’ Suit

Any changes to the Biden-era TSCA framework rule that sets procedures for evaluating existing chemicals will be problematic for both ongoing and completed evaluations and rules, industry attorneys say, regardless of whether litigation over the rule is paused, as EPA requested, or judges that heard arguments last month rule on the merits. “If the D.C. Circuit does give an opinion under Loper about the best interpretation of the statute as it relates to any of these issues briefed ...

California Bill Banning Antibacterial Soap Faces Escalating Opposition

A bill advancing in the California Legislature that would ban the sale of antibacterial consumer hand soap and body wash, beginning in 2028, faces escalating opposition from national and state business groups, amid clashing views about whether the products provide more protection than regular soap. The bill, AB 916 by Assemblyman Alex Lee (D-San Jose), represents a “critical step in protecting the public from hand soap and body wash ingredients that have known human health risks and environmental harm and...

Inhance Sues EPA Over CBI Decision In TSCA Records Litigation

Inhance Technologies, the maker of fluorinated containers at the center of a years-long TSCA battle, is suing EPA to prevent the release of test data measuring the amount of PFAS in its containers, arguing the data’s release would make public confidential business information (CBI) and harm the company’s competitive position. “If Inhance’s confidential business information is released, companies that provide competing barrier technologies will be motivated to refine their own manufacturing processes -- using information that Inhance developed at its...

SACC Flummoxed As TSCA Review Ends Without 1,3-BD Cancer Risk Advice

EPA science advisors are struggling to recommend how the agency can strengthen the cancer risk analysis underlying its draft TSCA evaluation for 1,3-buitadiene (1,3-BD) after a top EPA scientist informed them officials lack access to the data the advisors initially said the agency should use and now lacks the time to reevaluate it even if it had it. The Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) closed its virtual April 1-4 peer review meeting without reaching a consensus opinion on the...

Environmental Groups Urge EPA To Quickly Regulate Tire Chemical 6PPD

Environmental groups are urging EPA to swiftly propose a TSCA risk management rule for the tire chemical 6PPD, arguing the agency’s claims of insufficient data are unfounded given a growing body of studies showing unreasonable risks to the environment. The push for action under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) responds to EPA’s November advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) issued last year that asked stakeholders to provide a wide range of information on the tire component 6PPD and related...

EPA Touts Zeldin’s Animal Rights Record But Appears To Drop Test-Ban Plan

EPA is touting Administrator Lee Zeldin’s support of animal rights issues when he was a congressman, but the agency appears to be dropping a plan to renew its pledge to eliminate the use of animal testing by 2035 that was made during President Donald Trump’s first term. “Under President Trump’s first term, EPA signed a directive to prioritize efforts to reduce animal testing and committed to reducing testing on mammals by 30 percent by 2025 and to eliminate it completely...

Environmentalists Say Vinyl Chloride ‘Scope’ Fails To Fulfill TSCA

Environmental groups are pressing EPA to broaden its draft scoping document for the TSCA risk evaluation of vinyl chloride, arguing the document falls short of the law’s requirements for myriad reasons including failing to consider all exposures, assess cumulative risks and assess accidental releases. “The Vinyl Chloride Scope does not fulfill the requirements of TSCA,” a coalition of five environmental groups write in April 2 joint comments before outlining the document’s alleged shortcomings. Groups signing on to the comments are...

California Lawmaker Scales Back Bill Banning Microbeads From Products

A California lawmaker is scaling back her bill to ban the sale of cleaning products, cosmetics, paint and coatings that contain microbeads starting in 2027 by agreeing to remove paint and coatings from the ban and delaying the start dates for remaining bans by two years, though the measure is still being opposed by major industry groups. The bill, AB 823 by Assemblywoman Tasha Boerner (D-Encinitas), was approved April 7 by the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and now moves to...

Industry Seeks To Strengthen Remand Request In TSCA ‘Framework’ Suit

Trade groups who are challenging the Biden-era TSCA framework rule for evaluating existing chemicals’ risks are seeking to bolster the Trump EPA’s request that the D.C. Circuit place the case in abeyance and remand the rule to the agency rather than rule on the issues presented, pointing to the court’s recent abeyance decision in another EPA case. “Industry Petitioners and Petitioner-Intervenors write to request that the Court take notice of its recent order granting abeyance in a rulemaking case in...

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