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August 10, 2018

B&C’s TSCAblog™ Quoted By Inside EPA Regarding A Call For Clarity On The Reach Of EPA’s Approach To Oxirane Approval

The ACTA Group

On August 10, 2018, Inside EPA’s article “Industry Backs EPA Chemical Approval But Seeks Clarity On TSCA Process” included comments from TSCAblog’s August 6, 2018, post “EPA Adds Clarity to Interpretation of “Reasonably Foreseeable Conditions of Use”.” 

Industry attorneys are welcoming EPA’s recent approval of a new chemical that took a narrow view of the substance’s “reasonably foreseen uses” that the agency is required to consider, but are urging officials to clarify whether the approach is intended to apply more broadly to agency reviews of other new chemicals under the revised toxics law.

“We urge EPA to articulate its thinking on what is and is not ‘reasonably foreseeable’ and what [chemical] submitters can do to help EPA understand not only what is intended, but what might be reasonably foreseen to occur,” attorneys with the law firm Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. said in an Aug. 6 blog post.

[…]

The approach is winning praise from the attorneys at Bergeson & Campbell, which represents a coalition of companies interested in EPA’s review of new chemicals under the revised TSCA.

In the blog post, the attorneys tout EPA’s recent approval of a new polymer as showing the agency taking “a more measured approach” to considering “reasonably foreseen uses.”

“EPA more carefully applied new TSCA as written when it identified a low/moderate health concern and a moderate eco concern, and nevertheless took a reasonable approach grounded on the law to go beyond mere consideration of potential hazard and to interpret the ‘reasonably foreseen’ conditions of use and assess unreasonable risk as new TSCA requires,” the firm says. It calls the recent approval a “welcomed departure” from EPA’s past decision-making.

See – https://insideepa.com/daily-news/industry-backs-epa-chemical-approval-seeks-clarity-tsca-process (subscription required)