ISSUE: TSCA Top Stories

Judge Rejects Calls To Rule In Fluoride Suit, Renewing Push For New Petition

The federal judge presiding over the novel challenge to EPA’s denial of a TSCA petition seeking to ban drinking water fluoridation is rejecting the parties’ calls to rule on the merits and renewing his plan for them to redo the petition process to consider new science on fluoride’s adverse effects since the plaintiffs’ first petitioned EPA in 2016. During an Aug. 6 status conference in the case Food & Water Watch, Inc., et al. v. EPA , Judge Edward Chen...

Companies Seek TSCA ‘Use’ Exemptions As EPA Readies PBT Regulations

Two major chemical companies are asking EPA to provide “critical-use exemptions” from a proposed ban the agency is slated to finalize in December for a chemical used in coatings and as a flame retardant, the first of what is expected to be a host of similar requests as the agency begins regulating chemicals under the revised TSCA. In separate requests filed over the past few weeks, FujiFilm and Hempel, a major coatings manufacturer, urged EPA to exempt certain uses of...

Supporters Push New Strategy To Enact TSCA Asbestos Ban In 2020

Congressional and other supporters of a bill to ban asbestos use under TSCA are preparing to implement a new bipartisan strategy in the House and Senate to enact the bill this year, seeking to advance the measure in the House with a strong bipartisan vote while winning first-time Senate GOP support for a revised version of the measure. Environmentalists and others who back the bill have been pushing hard for its enactment because of concerns that EPA’s draft evaluation of...

EPA Delays Heighten TSCA Uncertainty Should Biden Win, Lawyers Say

EPA delays in completing pending risk evaluations for nine of the first ten chemicals it is assessing under TSCA are heightening uncertainty for the chemical industry about a possible Biden administration by broadening the scope of potential policy course changes, says a former EPA official now in private practice. Steve Owens, who led EPA’s toxics office at the start of the Obama administration, told an Aug. 5 webinar hosted by the Ohio Chemistry Technology Council and Squire Patton Boggs that...

Importers Face Challenges After EPA Subjects ‘Articles’ To PFAS SNUR

Importers of carpets, automotive parts, electronics and other articles that contain certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) appear to face a significant challenge identifying the chemicals in their imports because EPA, in a precedent-setting move, subjected the products to its recently signed significant new use rule (SNUR), lawyers say. “The SNUR did not waive the usual exemption for articles. This meant that the SNUR did not apply to any listed substances when present as a component of an imported article,...

EPA Draws First TSCA Suit Over Methylene Chloride’s No-Risk Findings

A coalition of environmental and labor groups has sued EPA over its risk evaluation for methylene chloride challenging the agency’s finding of no unreasonable risk for a handful of uses, the first such lawsuit over EPA’s first final risk evaluation under TSCA section 6. “While Congress directed EPA to conduct comprehensive risk evaluations that protect the most susceptible populations, the Trump administration prepared an unlawfully narrow evaluation that ignores the ways that many people are exposed to methylene chloride,” said...

Biden Call To Bolster EJ Reviews Could Aid Push To Target Chemical Sector

Seeking to address related concerns highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement and the coronavirus pandemic, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and other top Democrats are pushing to significantly elevate environmental justice (EJ) considerations in federal toxics and other environmental protection policies. Earlier this week, for example, Biden embraced calls for a major governmental reorganization to elevate EJ considerations in federal policymaking, calling for permanent new offices in the White House and the Justice Department to address the issue...

House Poised To Approve Strict New TSCA Rules For PFAS On NDAA

House lawmakers appear poised to attach legislative language to the upcoming Defense authorization bill that would impose strict new limits on EPA’s ability to approve new uses of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) under TSCA, while also requiring extensive new testing of PFAS under the law. The legislation -- which includes a five-year moratorium on new PFAS approvals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), a permanent bar on EPA’s use of the low-volume exemption to approve new PFAS, and...

Study Finding PFAS Absent From Inventory Raises TSCA Reform Doubts

A pair of environmental law professors is questioning the adequacy of TSCA’s approach to regulating chemicals in light of new studies from EPA and New Jersey researchers that found evidence of a group of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) replacement chemicals in New Jersey soils, but no evidence of the chemicals on the TSCA inventory. “Attempting to trace these compounds through the regulatory regime raises more questions than answers, revealing the structural limits of existing regulation,” write Steve Gold, a...

House Appropriators Seek To Boost EPA’s Chemical Research, IRIS Programs

House appropriators are seeking to boost funding for chemical safety research programs at EPA, with a special emphasis on restoring the agency’s once-influential Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program, and rejecting the Trump administration’s effort to slash such funding and sideline IRIS in favor of the nascent TSCA program. In July 9 report language attached to EPA’s fiscal year 2021 spending bill, the House Appropriations Committee also raises concerns that EPA is not doing enough under the Toxic Substances Control...

Facing Deadlines, EPA Readies New TSCA Plan To Bolster Data Collection

Facing a growing burden as they seek to comply with steep deadlines in the revised toxics law, EPA officials are preparing a new proposed rule, slated for release this fall, that they hope will help them gather more data from industry and other parties sooner than they have been and aid their efforts to prioritize existing chemicals for evaluation. According to the unified regulatory agenda released last week, EPA is planning to unveil as soon as this November a proposed...

Industry Petition Seeks To Codify ‘Tailored’ TSCA Approach EPA Has Pledged

Major industry groups that are asking EPA to write a framework procedural rule to guide its upcoming risk management regulations under TSCA say they want the rule to codify the “tailored” approach the law requires and which agency officials have pledged to adopt, according to a copy of the petition obtained by Inside TSCA . Risk management rules “are not required for those [conditions of use] that are found not to present an unreasonable risk,” the June 3 petition says...

Senate Defense Bill Debate To Include PFAS Ban Cleared By House Panel

The Senate will resume consideration of an annual defense authorization bill when it returns from recess in two weeks which will include votes on restrictions to the Pentagon’s use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including an amendment to ban purchases of products containing PFAS, after a key House committee approved its version of the defense bill which contains a number of PFAS measures, including the purchasing ban. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) has filed for consideration an amendment to the...

As Re-Openings Loom, EPA Grapples With Large-Scale Virus Disinfection

EPA is struggling to develop chemical and other techniques to disinfect large-scale public spaces from coronavirus contamination as many states continue their plans to reopen after their shutdowns -- despite a recent slowdown in some Sun Belt states after an uptick in cases, an agency engineer told a June 30 webinar. Despite the fact that many public spaces are either in the midst of a staged process of reopening, or have plans to reopen by the end of the summer,...

EPA Revising TSCA Regulations To Speed Reviews Of New Chemicals

Faced with growing criticism from Republicans and industry groups over the slow pace of its new chemicals review program, EPA is launching a new rulemaking to revise its existing TSCA rules to speed its evaluation of the substances and improve data requirements for companies seeking approvals. While the upcoming rule is likely to draw praise from industry and GOP lawmakers, it will almost certainly intensify criticism from environmentalists and Democrats, who are concerned that the agency will further undercut requirements...

Environmentalists Expected To Challenge EPA’s No ‘Risk’ Finding For MC

EPA’s final evaluation of the solvent methylene chloride (MC), the first of an existing chemical under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), launches risk management activities for scores of uses found to present unreasonable risk, but environmentalists are expected to challenge the half-dozen uses found not to present risk. Any litigation the groups may file would mark the first challenge of the nearly three dozen risk evaluations and their associated determinations the agency is slated to issue in the coming...

EPA Critics Seek To Heighten Agency’s TSCA Focus On Minorities

As policymakers face mounting pressure to respond to protesters’ concerns about systemic racism, environmentalists and other EPA critics are increasingly urging the agency to step up its TSCA focus on chemicals’ effects on poor and minority communities, including vulnerable communities adjacent to chemical facilities. While the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) generally requires EPA to consider risks to “potentially exposed and susceptible subpopulations” when evaluating chemicals for possible regulation, environmentalists and other critics have long charged that the agency...

Seeing TSCA As ‘Jacket,’ EPA Downplays Prospects For Future Deadlines

EPA toxics chief Alex Dunn and other top officials appear to be downplaying expectations that the agency will be able to comply with the revised Toxic Substances Control Act’s (TSCA) ambitious statutory deadlines, describing the law as a “jacket” that the agency is trying to tailor so that it can be implemented over the long-term. “We have to know that we can wear it and live with it for a long time, and we want to make sure it’s sustainable...

Key Republican Criticizes EPA Over Inadequate TSCA Implementation

Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), a top House Republican and one of the lead authors of the revised toxics law, is criticizing EPA’s failure to issue orders to force additional industry data and testing of chemicals and its handling of new chemical applications, signaling bipartisan criticism over the landmark 2016 law’s implementation. “If there's one surprise, it’s that EPA has not used section 4 information gathering authority” under the Toxic Substances Control Act, Shimkus said in a June 24 keynote address...

Chemical Users Ask EPA To Craft New TSCA Risk Management Procedures

As EPA begins crafting its first risk management rules under the revised toxics law, a coalition of chemical users is quietly asking the agency to write a procedural rule governing compliance deadlines, exemptions for certain uses, coordination with other agencies and other measures for when officials eventually write any regulatory mandates. Led by the American Coatings Associations (ACA), industry groups including the National Association of Manufacturers, the Toy Association, National Association of Home Builders, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce...

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