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On April 29, 2013, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report entitled Toxic Substances: EPA Has Increased Efforts to Assess and Control Chemicals but Could Strengthen Its Approach, which provides the results of a performance audit conducted by GAO from December 2011 to March 2013. GAO reviewed the extent to which: (1) the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has made progress implementing its new approach for managing toxic chemicals with the goal of...
Category: TSCA
As reported in our April 11, 2013, memorandum, on April 10, 2013, Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) reintroduced the Safe Chemicals Act of 2013 (S. 696) (SCA 2013), which would reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Senator Lautenberg's press release noted that the bill is identical to the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 (S. 847) (SCA 2011), which was reported favorably out of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee on a party-line vote in the 112th Congress on July 25,...
On April 18, 2013, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed significant new use rules (SNUR) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for eight chemical substances that were the subject of premanufacture notices (PMN) P-11-327, P-11-328, P-11-329, P-11-330, P-11-331, P-11-332, P-12-298, and P-12-299, the first six of which are renewable, biobased chemical substances manufactured by KiOR, Inc. This memorandum explains why the proposed SNURs for the biobased chemical...
On April 10, 2013, Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) reintroduced the Safe Chemicals Act (S. 696), which would reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and is identical to legislation (S. 847) reported favorably out of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee on a party-line vote in the 112th Congress. In his April 10, 2013, press release, Senator Lautenberg states that, compared to earlier versions of the legislation, the Safe Chemicals Act of 2013 "includes a number of...
On March 27, 2013, as part of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Work Plan, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will begin assessments on 23 chemicals, with a specific focus on flame retardant chemicals. According to EPA's press release, EPA will evaluate 20 flame retardant chemicals, conducting full risk assessments for four of the flame retardants, three of which are on the TSCA Work Plan, and one of which was the subject of an Action Plan. In addition to the...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) convened an in-person and on-line public forum today to discuss OPPT's ongoing efforts to develop an interactive public website. The website would integrate a wide range of chemical data collected and EPA assessments conducted under Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) programs, as supplemented by additional EPA resources such as the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) and the Toxics Release...
Rosemarie Kelley, Director, Waste and Chemical Enforcement Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, announced during a recent industry meeting that one of EPA's enforcement priorities will be to look at how manufacturers are naming and listing fractions of existing chemicals for Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory purposes. Kelley stated that fractions or "slices" of existing substances could be new chemical substances for...
On February 25, 2013, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published proposed significant new use rules (SNUR) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for 37 chemical substances that were the subject of premanufacture notices (PMN). In addition, 17 of the chemical substances are subject to TSCA Section 5(e) consent orders issued by EPA. If issued in final, the SNURs would require persons who intend to manufacture, import, or process the chemical substances for an activity that is...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on January 4, 2013, the availability of the first draft risk assessments developed under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Work Plan. The draft risk assessments are for particular uses of five chemicals found in household products: methylene chloride or dichloromethane (DCM) and N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) in paint stripper products; trichloroethylene (TCE) as a degreaser and a spray-on protective coating; antimony trioxide (ATO) as a...
The Acta Group's (Acta) thoughts are below on what may be headed our way in 2013 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP). Although the 2012 Presidential Election is over, environmental issues will continue to be used to make distinctions between the two parties (or between the House and Senate). Speculation is currently rife with what directions a re-elected Obama Administration might take: seek a middle-ground approach to...