Toxics

EPA efforts to expand toxic chemical regulations and reform its risk-assessment process, as well as the debate over revising the Toxic Substances Control Act, are just some of the topics featured in our Toxics section.

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EPA efforts to expand toxic chemical regulations and reform its risk-assessment process, as well as the debate over revising the Toxic Substances Control Act, are just some of the topics featured in our Toxics section.

Coalition forms to combat toxic exposures to military personnel

A host of veterans and environmental community groups have joined to form a coalition aimed at combating toxic exposures to military personnel, tackling a wide range of issues from burn pits during recent conflicts to contaminated water at installations in the United States. The Toxic Exposures in the American Military (TEAM) coalition -- which is currently comprised of 12 veterans and environmental community groups -- earlier this month announced its formation, with an aim of conducting research on exposures that...

HSIA details issues in suit over EPA’s methylene chloride ban

The trade association that represents users and manufacturers of methylene chloride is detailing the issues it wants a federal appellate court to address as it weights its challenge to the agency’s first-time Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) ban on consumer uses of the chemical in paint strippers. The Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance, Inc. (HSIA) filed June 7 its statement of issues to be raised, asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to consider whether EPA’s...

Critics Hint At Suit On EPA Plan To Curb Workers’ Methylene Chloride Risks

Environmental and labor groups are suggesting they may sue the agency if it proceeds with its proposed training program for commercial users of paint-stripping products containing methylene chloride, charging the agency has failed to justify its approach after the Obama administration found the chemical posed unreasonable risks to workers. In its May 29 comments , the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) points out the Obama EPA identified risks to workers in its 2014 assessment of methylene chloride, and proposed banning the...

As Congress Eyes AFFF Ban For DOD, Industry Concern Grows Over PFAS Liability

As Congress weighs barring the Defense Department (DOD) from procuring aqueous firefighting foam (AFFF) containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) due to contamination concerns, parties at large industrial and mining sites that may also have used the foam are growing increasingly concerned about their potential cleanup liability. “I think there’s a quiet degree of concern” about how much PFAS and what types of PFAS might be at sites where cleanup is in progress as well as at closed sites, says...

States Step Up Push To Test For PFAS At Waste Sites, Worrying Industry

Officials in New York and New Jersey, two states with a large number of Superfund and other waste sites, are stepping up their efforts to test for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other emerging contaminants at the sites, raising industry fears over potential liability, lagging analytical abilities and unclear remediation requirements. Earlier this year, New Jersey formally asked EPA to test for PFAS and other emerging contaminants at EPA-led Superfund sites and during remedy reviews at private sites. Mark...

Clash Over New Jersey’s PFAS Levels Previews Responses To EPA

In a potential preview of what EPA and other regulators can expect to see on any plans to regulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), industry and environmentalists are clashing over New Jersey’s landmark plans to set drinking water and other standards for the contaminants and what science should be used to do so. In recently filed comments, industry parties say New Jersey ignored the best available science and economic impacts when proposing the nation’s strictest drinking water standards for two...

Advisors Face Challenging Schedule Reviewing Range Of EPA Policies

EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) is planning to review a broad range of Trump administration deregulatory policies in a relatively quick fashion in order to provide advice on the agency’s regulatory timeline, efforts that SAB Chairman Michael Honeycutt acknowledges will be difficult but adds that the board has voted to undertake. “I hope nobody has vacation plans or if you do, let’s coordinate,” Honeycutt said during clarifying remarks at the end of SAB’s June 5-6 meeting in Washington, D.C. Honeycutt,...

Carper steps up call for PFAS legislation following FDA findings

The top Democrat on the Senate environment committee is stepping up his calls for Congress to approve legislation speeding EPA regulation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in water and other media in the wake of reports that the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is finding the chemicals in the food supply. “As Americans learn more about the ubiquity of PFAS in our environment and the extensive contamination in our water and food sources, understandably, there is a growing anxiety...

Groups Cite Risks To Bolster Standing To Target TSCA Evaluation Rule

Environmentalists and other groups challenging the Trump EPA’s framework rule on how the agency evaluates existing chemicals under the revised toxics law say that ongoing risks from legacy and other uses of substances currently being assessed show that they have standing to challenge the rule’s provision allowing the agency to preclude such uses from assessments. In a June 3 supplemental brief , the petitioners point to asbestos, 1,4-dioxane and HBCD -- all among the first 10 chemicals under evaluation under...

EPA Seeks Unusual Advice From SAB On Planned Risk Guide Update

EPA is seeking unusual advice from individual members of its Science Advisory Board (SAB), most of whom were appointed by the Trump administration, on how to revise the agency’s cancer and non-cancer risk assessment guidelines, asking a mixture of policy and scientific questions that appear to play to newer members’ de-regulatory interests. According to a list of questions the agency submitted to SAB ahead of its June 5-6 meeting, the agency is seeking to hold a “consultation” with its advisers...

Industry groups meet with OMB before PBT rule deadline

Industry groups are ramping up their advocacy with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in advance of EPA’s June 22 statutory deadline to propose a rule regulating a group of chemicals it has labeled persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT). Over the past few weeks, representatives of aerospace giant Boeing Co., lubricants manufacturer NYCO America and fuel additive and chemical manufacturer The SI Group have met with the OMB staff in advance of EPA’s deadline, according to OMB’s...

As EPA Readies Rules, Study Backs Stricter Limits On Facilities Emitting EtO

A long-awaited EPA risk analysis has found that cancer risks from emissions of ethylene oxide (EtO) from a now-shuttered sterilization plant in a Chicago suburb could be lowered if further controls are installed at the facility, findings that suggest upcoming agency air toxics rules governing EtO emissions could seek to strengthen current requirements. EPA released the study at a May 29 community meeting, telling those present that their estimate of “risks at recent, pre-seal order operating/emissions levels [of the Willowbrook,...

Citing Unintended Effects, Industry Sues Over EPA's Methylene Chloride Ban

A chemical industry trade association is suing EPA over its first-time Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) ban on consumer uses of paint-strippers containing methylene chloride, charging the measure goes too far by unintentionally limiting access to some commercial uses even though it does not intend to. The Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance, Inc. (HSIA) filed May 24 a petition for review of EPA's partial ban of methylene chloride-containing paint-stripping products with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia...

Asbestos Group Cites OSHA In Seeking Strict TSCA Risk Evaluation

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Group (ADAO) is urging EPA to perform a strict assessment of asbestos’ human health risk, citing in part findings by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and others that there is no safe level of exposure to the toxic mineral as some fear EPA will soften its analysis. “The ongoing EPA risk evaluation on asbestos provides an important opportunity for EPA to underscore the serious risks posed by the continuing use of asbestos,” a group...

RMP Delay May Suggest Rollback Of Obama-Era Policy ‘Dead In The Water’

Environmentalists say the Trump administration’s just-announced monthslong delay of its self-imposed deadline for finalizing a rollback of an Obama-era rule tightening facility safety Risk Management Plan (RMP) requirements may suggest the plan is “dead in the water” as it signals ongoing legal doubts about undoing the changes. “EPA's inability to finalize the rule on schedule may signal the agency's awareness that, as drafted, its proposed rule was blatantly unlawful and had no legal basis,” an environmentalist attorney says in an...

EPA pulls approvals for pesticides blamed for harms to bees

EPA has withdrawn a dozen registrations for neonicotinoid pesticides and committed to reviewing other chemicals in the class blamed for harms to bees as part of a proposed settlement of a suit brought by environmentalists alleging the agency’s registration of certain neonicotinoids violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In a May 20 notice in the Federal Register , EPA withdrew its approvals for a dozen neonicotinoid products containing the pesticide active ingredients clothianidin and thiamethoxam after the pesticide industry, which...

EPA Proposes Perchlorate MCL But Weighs Withdrawing Determination

Correction Appended EPA is proposing a long-awaited health protective goal and drinking water standard for perchlorate of 56 micrograms per liter (ug/L) but is asking the public to comment on a variety of options including setting levels more and less stringent or not regulating the chemical at all in drinking water, given new information on occurrence levels. The proposal, announced May 23, marks the first time in decades the agency has proposed an enforceable maximum contaminant level (MCL) based...

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