ISSUE: Inside TSCA

EPA Pushes Back Timeline For Proposing Asbestos Reporting Rule

EPA has again pushed back the court-ordered date for issuing a proposed TSCA reporting rule for asbestos to May -- its second such delay after previously shifting its target for the proposal from March to April. In an April 14 email reviewed by Inside TSCA , a Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney writes on behalf of EPA that the agency was at that point “still working through” White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review of the proposal, and...

EPA Defends TSCA Systematic Review Draft At SACC Peer Review Meeting

Correction Appended EPA toxics officials and staff offered their first public defenses of their draft TSCA systematic review approach for choosing studies to include in its chemical evaluations, arguing that despite criticism from stakeholders the draft addresses flaws in its Trump-era predecessor and is needed to support the toxics program. In opening remarks to the Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals’ (SACC) April 19-21 meeting to review the draft systematic review method, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) deputy...

Industry Seeks Clarity From EPA On TSCA ‘Whole Chemical’ Approach

Trade groups and industry attorneys say they still lack crucial details on how EPA plans to apply its broad new “whole chemical” approach to TSCA risk findings, and are pressing the agency to provide more detail on how it will decide when to use that model instead of crafting separate risk determinations for individual conditions of use. “What type of approach will they adopt? If the majority [of a chemical’s uses] are no risk, would they move to a situation...

3M Says Lack Of Human Data For Key PFAS Undercuts IRIS Assessment

Chemical giant 3M is challenging EPA’s adverse human health findings in its draft risk assessment for a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) used in firefighting foams, raising a novel concern that the agency should not link animal test data to human harms without additional human-health or epidemiological studies that the agency has used in other PFAS assessments. In April 4 comments on EPA’s draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment of the PFAS perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA), 3M argues that despite...

ADAO Ramps Up Push For ‘Full Asbestos Ban’ Following TSCA Proposal

A key environmental group pushing for stringent asbestos policies is criticizing EPA’s proposed TSCA risk management rule as falling short of a “comprehensive” ban even on the material’s chrysotile variant, arguing that only an explicit bar on all possible uses, either through regulation or new legislation, will be fully protective. In an April 18 post responding to the April 5 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) proposal, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) praises the rule as a “historic step forward”...

States Eye TSCA Reporting To Boost Data On Emerging Chemicals

State regulators say they have bolstered their ability to identify chemicals of emerging concern (CECs) in the wake of the nationwide struggle to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) but they add that EPA efforts to strengthen TSCA reporting rules are crucial as they have limited power to gather chemical data from industry. During an April 14 webinar on contaminants of emerging concern, at the annual industry-led GlobalChem conference, managers from state environmental agencies and an industry expert discussed what...

EPA, Industry Eye Routes To Improve TSCA Occupational Risk Analyses

The chemical industry is praising what it says are recent moves by EPA to consult workplace-safety agencies to bolster the TSCA office’s approach to occupational exposure and risk analysis, while pursuing its own efforts to harmonize approaches to that discipline used by the toxics program, industrial hygienists and occupational regulators. During recent panel discussions at the annual industry-led GlobalChem conference and the Society of Toxicology’s annual meeting in San Diego, speakers from EPA and the chemical sector described recent moves...

Industry Adds Latest Deadline Extension To PIP Rule Litigation

Trade associations behind a lawsuit opposing EPA’s TSCA ban on many uses of a common flame retardant are asking a federal appellate court to review the latest extension of the deadline to phase out phenol, isopropylated phosphate (3:1), or PIP (3:1), in addition to their litigation over the rule’s merits -- though the underlying case is still stayed. The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, the Consumer Technology Association, the Information Technology Industry Council, the...

EPA Readies TSCA Asbestos Reporting Rule As Industry Seeks Narrow Scope

EPA is poised to propose its court-ordered TSCA reporting rule for asbestos, though the measure is likely to spark clashes as the minerals sector is urging officials to use a narrower definition of “asbestos” than what the court required in the proposal, include a de minimis threshold environmentalists oppose, and allow as much as a year for the first round of reports. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed its review of EPA’s Toxic Substances Control...

Agencies Offer Divided Response To EPA’s Formaldehyde Assessment

EPA’s draft finding that formaldehyde exposures can lead to leukemia drew a range of reactions from other federal entities, according to comments crafted during an interagency review process, with some praising the cancer analysis and others warning that they see evidence of that link as more tenuous than the agency is claiming. The interagency comments, which EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) office released alongside its April 14 draft assessment of formaldehyde, could preview a heated battle over the finding...

EPA Says Asbestos Ban Could Ramp Up PFAS Use In Chlor-Alkali Plants

EPA is acknowledging that its landmark TSCA proposal to ban use of chrysotile asbestos will force more use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the chlor-alkali industry, though the agency says that the benefits of removing asbestos ultimately outweigh the risks of increased PFAS use. Still, attorneys say that while more sustainable alternatives are in the works, they appear unlikely to be ready for use by the rule’s deadline. As proposed on April 5 , the Toxic Substances Control...

California Eases Prop. 65 ‘Short Form’ Warning Change, But Pushback Looms

California regulators are relaxing several major provisions of their proposal to revise Proposition 65 “short form” toxic warning-label rules for consumer products, but the new version still faces likely opposition from industry over at least one unchanged requirement while environmental and public-health groups may raise their own concerns. The state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) on April 5 released both a notice and text of a second revised proposal to modify the Prop. 65 short-form requirements that industry...

IRIS Retains Formaldehyde’s Leukemia Finding But Eases Cancer Risk Level

EPA’s just-released draft risk assessment of formaldehyde links the chemical to myeloid leukemia, maintaining a key conclusion from its controversial 2010 draft, but does not use that finding in its cancer risk estimate due to modeling data uncertainty, resulting in a risk value that is an order of magnitude less strict than in 2010, and very close to its last final review in 1991. The agency April 14 released its long-awaited draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment of human...

Industry Seeks New Guidance From EPA To Ease TSCA Article Mandates

As EPA moves toward broader regulation of finished articles under TSCA, an industry attorney says many firms will need to work closely with the government to gather information on the chemical makeup of their products and need new guidance on how to comply with such requirements -- which one official says the agency is “looking to provide.” During an April 12 panel discussion on application of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to articles, part of the annual, industry-led GlobalChem...

EPA Readies IRIS Formaldehyde Draft Amid Fresh Wave Of Industry Attacks

EPA is slated to unveil a new draft of its long-stalled risk assessment of formaldehyde by April 14, just as the chemicals sector and its allies are mounting a wide-ranging campaign aiming to head off potential use of the draft in regulatory work including a pending TSCA evaluation and attacking what it says are ethical and scientific lapses in the drafting process. According to a Federal Register notice set for publication April 14, EPA will release its latest draft...

EPA Expects No New TSCA Prioritization Work In FY22

One of the top officials at EPA’s toxics office says the agency has no plans to start prioritizing its next batch of existing chemicals for TSCA evaluation in fiscal year 2022, explaining that the program is instead focusing its limited staff on completing the more than 20 evaluations now in progress. Tala Henry, one of two career deputy directors of the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), said in an April 11 session of the GlobalChem industry conference that...

EPA Readies 150 SNURs Regulating PFAS Approved Before TSCA Reform

EPA chemicals chief Michal Freedhoff says the agency could release within “about two months” significant new use rules (SNURs) limiting applications of some 150 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) approved before Congress overhauled the toxics law in 2016, alongside previously announced test orders for another block of 24 perfluorinated chemicals. During her April 11 keynote remarks to the chemical industry’s annual GlobalChem conference, Freedhoff said EPA plans to issue separate SNURs for each of “about 150 PFAS” that the agency...

House Group Urges EPA To Quickly Close TRI ‘Loophole’ For PFAS Reports

A group of House lawmakers is urging EPA to step up its timeline for a promised rule that would broaden Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting requirements for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), calling the agency’s failure to meet a self-imposed March target for the proposal “deeply concerning.” In the April 11 letter , 41 House members including Reps. Dan Kildee (D-MI), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI), among many others who have been active on PFAS regulation, write that...

New TSCA ‘Correction’ Method Needed To Ease Inventory Fixes, EPA Says

The “steward” of EPA’s TSCA inventory of chemicals in commerce says the agency’s controversial move to discontinue a decades-old process for correcting entries was needed to remedy a growing list of complications with the process that have rendered it “harder and harder” for officials to respond to new filings in recent years. EPA’s Tracy Williamson, who leads the agency’s industrial chemistry branch and is listed on its website as “steward” of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) inventory, said during...

Citing Budget Gap, Freedhoff Defends TSCA Program From Industry Critique

EPA chemicals chief Michal Freedhoff used her keynote address at the annual GlobalChem conference to defend the agency’s implementation of TSCA, repeatedly noting the program’s insufficient funding and staffing in response to industry concerns over policy changes and missed deadlines while warning that the program’s fees are likely to spike. “You get what you pay for,” she said in her April 11 speech to the industry-led online conference. “And frankly, prepare yourself for sticker shock on TSCA fees. We are...

Pages

Not a subscriber? Request 30 days free access to exclusive environmental policy reporting.