ISSUE: Inside TSCA

Industry Seeks To Extend Formaldehyde, Asbestos Comment Deadlines

Industry groups are asking EPA to extend its public comment deadlines on two recently released and high-profile items, the draft IRIS assessment of human health effects of exposure to formaldehyde and the first TSCA proposed rule based on an evaluation conducted following the reformed law, that limiting uses of chrysotile asbestos. The American Chemistry Council (ACC) came out strongly against the latest draft of the formaldehyde Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment even before its release , protesting the new...

Industry Expands Push To Block Use Of Class-Based PFAS Methods

The chemical industry and other sectors are looking beyond EPA to block other state and federal agencies from adopting class-based approaches to assessing and regulating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), warning it could undercut development of critical new technologies and increase remedial costs. For example, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) recently urged the Department of Energy (DOE) to refrain from grouping various PFAS polymers as it considers creating a new program under the bipartisan infrastructure law to fund development of...

Industry Fears EPA Asbestos Rule Signals Broad Worker Safety Oversight

Industry officials are raising broad concerns that strict worker safety standards and other provisions in EPA’s recently proposed TSCA ban on chrysotile asbestos uses signals the agency is take a tougher approach than OSHA and other agencies, raising questions about which agency has primacy over workplace safety. “The proposed asbestos risk management rule has implications far beyond asbestos. Stakeholders for other chemicals being reviewed under TSCA section 6 can expect EPA eventually to consider proposing restrictions much more stringent than...

Court Urged To Order EPA To Produce Record In TSCA New Chemicals Case

Environmentalists are urging a federal court to order EPA to produce the administrative record for their long-running case seeking to increase transparency in the TSCA new chemicals program, arguing that the suit challenges a series of discrete agency actions that can be challenged and is not the “failure to act” case that the agency says it is. In an April 29 motion to compel , environmentalists cited a series of Federal Register notices and agency production of pre-manufacture notice...

Former Officials Challenge Freedhoff’s Claims On PFAS Data Availability

Three former EPA officials are renewing calls for the agency to use TSCA authority to order Chemours to conduct new toxicity testing of dozens of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pushing back on claims from EPA’s chemicals chief that the data “already exist” even as they sue over the agency’s failure to order the tests. “We urge EPA to prioritize its mission of protecting health and the environment by making full use of its authority to obtain the data necessary...

EPA Resists Environmentalists’ Bid To Litigate Over decaBDE Rule

EPA is firing back at environmentalists’ latest effort to advance their stalled litigation over EPA’s TSCA rule limiting use of the flame retardant decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE) by arguing environmental and tribal petitioners cannot cite a recent order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit as supplemental authority. EPA in a response filed late April 28 , says it “object[s]” to petitioners’ April 27 letter citing supplemental authority from the D.C. Circuit’s April 14 decision in Newburgh Clean...

Fearing Chlorine Limits, Utilities Seek Broad EPA Response To Asbestos Ban

Drinking water utility officials are hoping that toxics office staff work with other EPA offices and other agencies as they seek to ban the use of chrysotile asbestos under TSCA because they fear the pending prohibition will further limit their access to chlorine, which is critical for disinfection, after supplies were stressed during the pandemic. Steve Via, director of federal relations at the American Water Works Association (AWWA), says he hopes that EPA’s program offices and other relevant agencies “are...

Watchdog Sues EPA Seeking TSCA Program Documents Defining PFAS

The environmental watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is suing EPA under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) alleging the agency unlawfully withheld internal documents on how the TSCA program developed its narrow definition of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The April 28 suit , filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, underscores the growing significance of the debate over how regulators and other policymakers define PFAS -- a class of thousands of chemicals...

Environmentalists Seek To Bolster Bid To Litigate TSCA Limits On DecaBDE

Environmentalists are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to consider new caselaw that they argue supports their opposition to EPA’s request for the court to remand its TSCA rule limiting use of the flame retardant decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE) in a new push to litigate the rule’s merits. Attorneys for petitioners in the linked cases Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT) v. EPA and Yurok Tribe, et al., v. EPA are urging the 9th Circuit...

ATSDR Floats Draft Tox Profiles For Mercury, Other Substances

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has released for public comment four new draft toxicological profiles, including one for multiple forms of mercury, a toxic metalloid that EPA is also assessing and which Congress directed EPA to inventory the uses of in its reform of TSCA. ATSDR released April 27 draft toxicological profiles for mercury, copper, nitrobenzene and nitrophenols. The agency has set a public comment deadline of July 26. ATSDR’s new draft mercury tox profile describes...

Democrats Float Bill Banning PFAS-Containing AFFF Under TSCA By 2024

Democrats in the House and Senate are proposing companion bills that would amend TSCA to ban the manufacture, import, and sale of all firefighting foam that contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), arguing that other countries have already found safer substitutes for the chemicals and the only barrier to a domestic switch is “red tape.” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) announced the bill at an April 27 online press conference. While its text is not yet...

EPA Urged To Narrow TSCA Polymer Exemption To Curb PFAS Precursors

A new law review article makes the case that limiting or ending a TSCA exemption for many polymers would be the “most impactful” step EPA could take toward controlling plastic pollution, saying many materials the agency considers presumptively safe degrade into per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other toxic chemicals after disposal. In Plastics and the Limits of U.S. Environmental Law , published April 18 in the Harvard Environmental Law Review, two University of Utah professors float several potential...

Vermont Passes PFAS Medical Monitoring Bill Sought By Health Groups

Vermont has enacted what environmentalists say is a first-in-the-nation bill explicitly allowing courts to order medical monitoring of individuals exposed to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other toxic chemicals, marking a victory for groups that say such monitoring is needed to generate new human-health data on PFAS risks. Gov. Phil Scott (R) signed the medical-monitoring bill, known as S.113 , into law on April 21, over a year after he blocked a broader proposal backed by environmental and public-health...

Industry Renews Attacks On PV29 Evaluation Amid ‘Whole Chemical’ Clash

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is renewing calls for EPA to scrap and redo its TSCA evaluation of pigment violet 29 (PV29), arguing that proposed changes to the chemical’s risk determinations have only compounded “fatal flaws” in the original Trump-era document, while environmentalists and agency alumni are praising those revisions. However, both sides are pushing for EPA to be more transparent on how it will apply the new policy and are pushing the agency for new guidance or other documentation...

DOD Finds Flaws In All Available Options For PFAS-Free AFFF Replacements

The Department of Defense (DOD) has identified six “viable” options for replacing firefighting foam made with per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) though each has significant flaws such as high cost and reliance on engineering controls rather than direct fire suppression, according to a recent DOD briefing to Congress. The findings appear to mark a setback for the military’s effort to find replacements for PFAS-containing aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), likely the most significant source of PFAS contamination, as officials work to meet...

EPA Weighs More PMN Streamlining Pilots But Faces Resource Limits

EPA’s director of TSCA new chemicals reviews says the agency is considering expanding its nascent effort to streamline reviews of TSCA pre-manufacture notices (PMNs) for new biofuel chemicals to additional sectors, but is warning that limited funding will complicate any such effort. Madison Le, director of the new chemicals division within EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), said during a panel discussion at the recent GlobalChem conference that staff are considering other groups of chemicals that would lend...

Industry Says California Failed To Justify SCP Listing In First-Time Appeal

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) and a major paint manufacturer say California’s latest defense of its decision to list some spray polyurethane foam (SPF) products as priority products under its Safer Consumer Products (SCP) green chemistry program is fundamentally flawed, because it relies on factors regulators did not consider in that order. ACC and General Coatings Manufacturing Corp. filed a joint April 18 brief that aims to both rebut the Department of Toxic Substances Control’s recent arguments that the SPF...

SACC Raises ‘Major Concerns’ With Draft TSCA Systematic Review Model

Members of EPA’s Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) say they have “major concerns” on the TSCA office’s draft approach for choosing studies to include in chemical evaluations through systematic review, including that the agency has not addressed prior recommendations on how it should approach the discipline. “Overall, while some reviewers found the document very organized and easy to follow, there were still some major concerns noted,” SACC member Marissa Baker said on the first day of the committee’s April...

Officials Tout ‘Collaborative’ New Chemicals Plan But Face Early Questions

The new director of the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) says a nascent plan to improve TSCA new-chemical assessments will rely on “working collaboratively” with staff at EPA, other federal agencies and even overseas regulators, but some observers are already questioning its approach to topics like non-animal toxicity testing. In her keynote address to an April 20-21 public meeting on the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) research program, Denise Keehner, a longtime EPA career official who returned from...

Lawmakers Urge EPA To Quickly Approve Pending Carbon Nanotube PMNs

Members of Congress from Michigan are asking EPA to approve two TSCA pre-manufacturing notices (PMNs) for the carbon nanotubes (CNT) they say are crucial to electric vehicle (EV) battery production in the state, as the agency continues to struggle with both a backlog of new-chemical applications and efforts to assess nanomaterials. Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Gary Peters (D-MI) and Reps. Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), argued in a recent letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan that the...

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