ISSUE: Inside TSCA

ACC Ramps Up Pressure On New-Chemical Delays Ahead Of EPW Hearing

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is pressing chemicals chief Michal Freedhoff for a “comprehensive plan” to address delays in new-chemical reviews on the eve of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s (EPW) first TSCA oversight hearing of the year, signaling a likely priority for the panel’s GOP members. In a June 20 release , ACC highlighted what it says is a new survey of its member companies showing massive delays in EPA’s processing of Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)...

Groups Press EPA To Focus Formaldehyde IRIS Assessment On Leukemia

Environmentalists are pushing EPA to tighten its new draft risk assessment of formaldehyde by setting a cancer estimate based at least in part on the ubiquitous chemical’s links to leukemia, rejecting agency arguments that while such a link exists, the studies establishing it are too uncertain to use in an Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) review. EPA’s long-awaited IRIS draft on formaldehyde agrees with a controversial study that exposure to the chemical can cause myeloid leukemia but does not use...

Denka Renews Attack On Chloroprene IRIS Review After EPA Air Toxics Vow

A Louisiana chemical manufacturer is again demanding that EPA ease its risk assessment for the synthetic rubber component chloroprene, months after the agency rejected another petition from the same firm, and just days after acting air chief Joe Goffman pledged to use the contested assessment in a review of air toxics rules for the chemical. On June 10, Denka Performance Elastomers, LLC (DPE) filed a request for reconsideration asking EPA to reverse its mid-March decision to leave in place the...

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...

EDF Urges EPA To Scrap PFAS TSCA Approvals As Voluntary Action Lags

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is pushing EPA to forcibly pull from the market a group of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that previously won low volume exemptions (LVEs) from TSCA review, saying that the agency’s call for companies to voluntarily withdraw these chemicals has failed thus far. The environmental group says in a new post that a year after EPA announced it would ask companies to surrender LVEs granted by prior administrations for new PFAS under the Toxic Substances Control...

Environmentalists Laud TSCA PFAS Test Order Despite Early Doubts

Environmentalists are voicing support for EPA’s first TSCA order mandating new toxicity tests for a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) despite past criticism of the testing plan, praising the broad scope of the order and calling for the agency to use it as a launching point for more study of a wide range of perfluorinated chemicals. “There are a couple of things that are interesting here -- one is EPA’s justification for the test order, which is potentially pretty broad,”...

Industry Claims Host Of Scientific Flaws In Draft Formaldehyde Assessment

Industry groups are calling for EPA to rework its draft formaldehyde risk assessment to address what they say is a long list of scientific faults, ranging from the agency’s handling of specific studies to a failure to “harmonize” its approach to evaluating the chemical’s cancer risks with 2005 guidelines. In letters filed ahead of a June 13 deadline for public comment, several trade associations and industry-affiliated consultants say the draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment of formaldehyde falls short...

Senate EPW Sets June 22 TSCA Oversight Hearing

Update Appended The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) has formally scheduled a June 22 oversight hearing on EPA’s implementation of the 2016 TSCA reform law, with chemicals chief Michal Freedhoff set to appear before the panel as the day’s sole witness. While the hearing date was previously posted on the Senate’s online legislative calendar, EPW only announced the session in a June 15 release, confirming both its focus on the 2016 amendments to the Toxic Substances Control...

EPA Asks Court To Dismiss TSCA New Chemicals ‘Transparency’ Case

EPA is asking a federal district court to dismiss environmentalists’ long-stalled suit seeking increased transparency in TSCA reviews of new chemicals, arguing both that the claims “are not reviewable by the Court” and that the plaintiffs have shown no harm caused by a lack of information on the process that would give them standing to bring the case. The agency “hereby move[s] the Court to dismiss this suit in its entirety because most claims are not reviewable by the Court...

Firms Say Most Fluoropolymers Pose Low Risk Despite EPA’s TSCA Threat

A new industry-backed study argues that fluoropolymers, a subset of the per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) universe, should be considered “low concern” because most cannot dissolve or otherwise contaminate water and other substances, despite EPA’s recent warnings that such contamination is possible and could trigger TSCA enforcement. The study, “ A Critical Review of the Application of Polymer of Low Concern Regulatory Criteria to Fluoropolymers II: Fluoroplastics and Fluoroelastomers ,” was published June 14 in the journal Integrated Environmental Assessment...

EPA Eyes OSHA As Model For TSCA Enforcement, Drawing Call For MOU

EPA plans to “learn from” OSHA’s enforcement of workplace chemical-exposure limits as it prepares for the demands of enforcing new TSCA risk management rules, a spokesperson says, while an industry attorney sees a formal memorandum of understanding (MOU) or other partnership between the two agencies as an option to aid those efforts. The spokesperson tells Inside TSCA that deputy EPA toxics chief Mark Hartman told a recent, closed-door American Bar Association (ABA) meeting that the Toxic Substances Control Act...

CSB Chair Resigns Days After Biden Names Latest Board Nominee

Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) Chair Katherine Lemos has resigned with three years left in her term, reportedly citing “eroded confidence” in the body’s mission and priorities, months after the Senate confirmed two new CSB members and just days after the announcement of President Joe Biden’s latest nominee. A spokesperson for the board confirmed to Inside TSCA that Lemos had submitted her resignation to the White House on June 10, and will formally step down on July...

Stockholm Convention Bans PFHxS As EPA Assessment Remains Stalled

The Stockholm Convention, the multilateral chemical regime of which the United States is not a member, has agreed to ban production and use of a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) used in a variety of applications, outpacing EPA’s efforts to conduct a risk assessment that that the toxics office will use to inform future TSCA new-chemical reviews. The Stockholm Convention, a body of 152 signatory countries that designates and regulates so-called persistent organic pollutants (POPs), decided during a June 9...

EPA Rejects Formaldehyde Comment Extension Amid Attacks On Process

EPA is refusing an array of requests from industry and members of Congress to extend the June 13 comment deadline on its latest draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment of formaldehyde, arguing that criticism of its development process is unfounded and that there will be more chances for the public to weigh in during peer review. “Formaldehyde is a hazardous air pollutant present in indoor and outdoor air, and development of toxicological information on this chemical is critical to...

New EPA Budget Review Could Support More Than Doubling Of TSCA Fees

A quietly released EPA budget document for fiscal year 2021 appears to lay groundwork for the chemicals office to more than double its TSCA user fees, based on an internal study that found chemical risk evaluations under the reformed law cost far more than originally estimated by the Trump administration -- $8.4 million rather than $3.88 million. EPA’s December 2021 document , “Additional FY 2021 Contributions to EPA’s Portfolio of Evidence,” which was only posted to the agency’s website earlier...

Key Senate Republican Opposes Democrats’ Bill Banning Asbestos Uses

A top Republican on the Senate environment committee is strongly opposing Democrats’ latest bill to ban asbestos uses, arguing during a June 9 hearing that EPA and OSHA should address the material’s risks through rulemaking instead of legislation, in a sign the measure faces an uphill battle to win bipartisan support needed to break any filibuster. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s (EPW) chemical safety panel and the only Republican to attend...

Biden Nominates Former California Utility Regulator To CSB

President Joe Biden is nominating a former member of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to fill one of two open seats on the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), bringing the body closer to full strength after years of shorthanded operations during the Trump administration. The White House announced in a June 8 release that Biden had picked Catherine JK Sandoval, who spent 2011-16 as a CPUC commissioner and currently serves as a professor at the Santa Clara...

Researchers See Array Of Options For Indoor Chemical Exposure Limits

The scientists behind a recent National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report that called for aggressive new research on indoor chemical exposures say their work could be a starting point for a wide range of different regulatory approaches, and warning against any effort to simply “copy and paste” standards crafted for outdoor air. During a June 7 webinar, several authors of the NAS study Why Indoor Chemistry Matters said that while there are still large data gaps on how...

House GOP Says DOJ May Have Bypassed EPA In Chemical Labeling Case

The top Republican on the House Oversight Committee is questioning whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) consulted EPA before reversing its Trump-era position that federal law preempts California’s controversial cancer-warning mandate for glyphosate, arguing that chemical regulators should have a voice in the administration’s stance. In a June 7 letter to Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) says DOJ’s recent amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to decline review of long-running litigation over the glyphosate label requirement...

EPA Alumni Urge Congress To Pass Asbestos Ban Bill

The Environmental Protection Network (EPN) of former EPA staff and officials are urging key senators and representatives to support Democrats’ recently introduced bill that would ban all uses of commercial asbestos on the eve of a Senate hearing, touting the legislation as broader and stronger than the agency’s proposed TSCA rule. In a June 3 letter ahead of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s (EPW) scheduled June 9 hearing on the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now (ARBAN) Act, EPN...

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