ISSUE: Inside TSCA

ADAO Seeks Stronger Asbestos Reporting But Backs ‘Landmark’ Proposal

Officials with the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), whose settlement with EPA prompted its proposal for first-time TSCA asbestos reporting mandates, are urging the agency to make its final rule more “robust” than the draft but are nonetheless backing the overall policy, which they see as a “landmark” step for asbestos controls. The proposal is “another landmark step but it doesn't go far enough,” Linda Reinstein, president and co-founder of ADAO, tells Inside TSCA , pointing in particular to EPA’s...

Colorado Poised To Enact Bill Banning PFAS In Products

The Colorado legislature has passed a bill that would ban the sale and manufacture of a host of consumer products containing intentionally added per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as soon as 2024, adding to the list of states preparing aggressive bans on goods made with the chemicals. H.B. 22-1345 easily cleared the state’s House of Representatives by a 50-15 vote on May 11 after passing the Senate 24-11 on May 9, and now awaits Gov. Jared Polis’ (D) signature. It...

House Science Panel Weighs Bill To Bolster Federal PFAS Toxicity Research

The House science committee is preparing to mark up a bipartisan bill that seeks to accelerate and better coordinate federal research into per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), by ordering EPA to commission a sweeping National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study of the chemicals’ toxicity, uses and environmental fate, while laying groundwork for hazard assessments. H.R. 7289 , sponsored by Reps. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX) and Peter Meijer (R-MI), is one of four bills that the full House Science, Space and Technology...

EPA Considers Halting Some TSCA Evaluations To Close Budget Shortfall

EPA chemicals chief Michal Freedhoff says the agency is weighing whether to freeze work on some of its TSCA-mandated evaluations for existing chemicals because it “simply cannot” complete them at its current levels of staff and funding, while warning that similar problems are on the horizon for the cash-strapped pesticides office. According to her prepared remarks from a May 11 speech at the Household & Commercial Products Association’s (HCPA) mid-year meeting, Freedhoff told the trade group that while officials have...

Report Says ‘Misleading’ EPA PFAS Outreach Downplays Exposure Risk

A new study says EPA and other agencies’ public-facing messages on the health harms of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are “failing PFAS-contaminated communities,” and urging officials to rework what the academic authors say are “equivocal or even misleading” statements that appear to downplay the risks of exposure. “Official health communications are failing PFAS-contaminated communities,” published May 11 in the journal Environmental Health , analyzes PFAS-related health communications from dozens of federal agencies, states and private groups, and concludes that...

Industry Says Glyphosate Prop. 65 Warning Still Illegal, Despite EPA Support

A coalition of industry groups is opposing California regulators’ revised Proposition 65 toxic chemical warning label language for products containing glyphosate, charging it continues to violate their First Amendment rights and remains illegal, while rejecting the Biden EPA’s support of the new proposal as a “carefully choreographed” political move. “Through an exchange of carefully choreographed letters between the director” of California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) “and the new Assistant Administrator of [EPA], who was appointed in June...

EDF Blasts New ACC TSCA Agenda Despite Call For EPA Budget Boost

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is welcoming the American Chemistry Council (ACC)’s new embrace of a budget increase for the TSCA program but pushing back against industry’s call to tie any such boost to rollbacks of strict chemical policies, arguing that claims of agency action stifling innovation and costing jobs are at odds with the sector’s own economic data. Although EDF “agree[s] with the ACC’s call for more funding for EPA to properly implement [the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)],...

EPA Proposes Overhaul Of TSCA CBI Rules To Match Reformed Law

EPA is floating a broad rewrite of its TSCA policies governing industry submissions of confidential business information (CBI), saying the changes are necessary to reflect the tighter mandates Congress added in its 2016 overhaul of the toxics law and consolidate what is now a disparate set of rules that govern various aspects of its data handling. The new proposal , slated to appear in the May 12 Federal Register , follows years of work at the agency to develop a...

EPA Wins Transfer Of PFAS Testing Suit, Sending Case To North Carolina

A federal judge has granted EPA’s request to send environmentalists’ TSCA suit seeking to force new testing of 54 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to a U.S. district court in North Carolina, rejecting the plaintiffs’ push to keep their case in a heavily Democratic district in California. In a May 9 opinion , Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton writes that environmental and North Carolina community groups’ decision to challenge EPA’s response to their Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) PFAS testing petition...

Chemical Sector Backs TSCA Budget Boost, But Urges New Oversight

Chemical-industry groups are lining up behind EPA’s request to double the TSCA program’s budget in fiscal year 2023, signaling what could be rare bipartisan agreement on a funding increase for the agency, although several groups are linking their support to calls for stronger Congressional oversight and rollbacks of Biden administration policies. “EPA has stated a need for more resources to administer [the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). . . . Our clear message to EPA is this: We hear you,...

OSTP Taps DOD To Co-Lead PFAS ‘Sustainable Chemistry’ Strategy

The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) says that the Department of Defense (DOD) is taking the lead on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as part of the Biden administration’s nascent sustainable chemistry program, adding to its joint push with EPA to bolster research into the chemicals. In prepared slides from OSTP’s presentation to a May 6 meeting in the Small Business Administration (SBA)’s Environmental Roundtable series, the office highlights the makeup of three “strategy teams” working...

Researchers Urge New Studies On Risks Of Data-Poor ‘Next-Gen’ PFAS

A new review of existing data on the human health effects of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) says more research is needed on “next generation” PFAS created as replacements for legacy chemicals in the class, on the heels of another study that linked disposable face masks to increased water contamination from such next-gen PFAS. The first study , “Exposure to per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Markers of Liver Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” was published April 27 in the...

EPA Seeks To Overcome NAM Testing Hurdles For ‘Volatile’ Chemicals

EPA researchers are eyeing a novel application of new alternate methods (NAM) to address long-standing difficulties testing the toxicity of volatile or semi-volatile chemicals in vitro -- a concern since many substances the agency is seeking to evaluate and regulate under TSCA are volatile and lack traditional animal data. Speaking on a May 4 webinar on toxicogenomics hosted by the Food and Drug Administration and the Society of Toxicology, Rusty Thomas, director of EPA’s computational toxicology research center, said...

ACC Demands EPA ‘Fix’ TSCA Implementation But Hedges On Budget Boost

The chemical industry’s largest trade association is poised to demand EPA “fix” its TSCA program but is declining to weigh in on the Biden EPA’s request to nearly double its budget, after agency officials and others have repeatedly argued that the toxics office’s struggles to meet statutory deadlines are largely due to underfunding. The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is “urgently calling on [EPA] to reverse misguided policy changes and get [Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)] implementation back on track,” the...

Vermont Medical Monitoring Law ‘Opens The Doors’ To Novel PFAS Suits

Vermont’s first-in-the-nation law allowing courts to order medical monitoring of individuals exposed to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) could help set off a wave of new litigation over those exposures, while also providing a model for other efforts to gather medical data key to new toxicity findings for the chemicals, legal experts say. The just-enacted legislation will “open the doors to litigation in Vermont against manufacturers,” with much better odds of success than in states where medical monitoring is only...

Environmentalists Urge EPA To Deny Chemours GenX ‘Correction’ Petition

The environmental groups suing EPA to force TSCA test orders for 54 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) linked to a North Carolina Chemours plant are lining up against the chemical maker’s petition for the agency to “correct” its strict risk assessment for one of the most prominent entries in that list -- the PFAS cluster known as GenX. In a May 3 letter to EPA water chief Radhika Fox, the six groups argue that Chemours is using its Information Quality...

EPA Proposes One-Time Asbestos Reporting Rule With Few Exemptions

EPA has unveiled its long-awaited TSCA reporting rule for asbestos, floating a one-time mandate that would cover four years of imports, manufacturing and processing of asbestos and products either intentionally made with the mineral or that include it as an impurity at any “reasonably ascertainable” level, though with exceptions for certain small entities. The proposal , slated for publication in the May 6 Federal Register , is the result of a court settlement between EPA and various states and environmental...

Industry, CARB Say TSCA Formaldehyde Plan At Odds With State Rule

Industry groups and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) are warning EPA that proposed technical updates to its formaldehyde emissions standards for certain wood products are contradictory and would create inconsistencies with CARB’s rules, undercutting the Biden administration’s plan to clarify the Obama-era policy. In comments filed ahead of an April 28 deadline, California’s air agency and other stakeholders take aim at one sentence in the proposed revision to the Obama administration’s 2016 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) formaldehyde rule,...

Industry Says EPA’s ‘Illegal’ TSCA PPE Policy Ignores OSHA Safeguards

Paint and pigment trade groups are saying EPA’s new policy of assuming workers will not use protective gear in TSCA risk evaluations is “illegal” and irrational, charging that the agency has improperly ignored existing workplace practices and OSHA safety standards as well as companies’ general duty to protect their workers from “recognized” dangers. In newly released comments on EPA’s updated Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) risk evaluation of pigment violet 29 (PV29), two key trade associations representing pigment and coatings...

Regan Urges Congress To Back FY23 TSCA Boost, Citing Missed Deadlines

EPA Administrator Michael Regan is urging Congress to back the agency’s request to double funding for the TSCA program in fiscal year 2023, reiterating previous agency statements that EPA lacks funding to implement a reformed TSCA on deadline, in response to questions about missed deadlines from a key House appropriator. “You see a very genuine budget request here for TSCA support and implementation,” Regan said at an April 29 hearing of the House Appropriations Committee’s panel that oversees EPA funding...

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