Articles

This past March, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its first final risk management rule under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to address the unreasonable risk of chrysotile asbestos to human health under certain conditions of use (COUs). Even if asbestos isn’t in your supply chain, don’t hit the brakes on reading further. All TSCA stakeholders need to understand this rule because it is a template for how the agency will address risk...

On March 6, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated revised National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter (PM). The final rule was signed on Feb. 7, 2024. New NAAQS standards are always controversial, and this one is no exception. ...

On Jan. 26, 2024, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued updated enforcement guidance regarding compliance with OSHA’s standard for the Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals (PSM standard). The new directive, CPL 02-01-065, provides much-needed updates to the guidance issued in 1994 and explains OSHA’s current thinking regarding compliance with the PSM standard. ...

First, let’s look at U.S. policy and regulatory developments. In this election year, competing priorities will dominate U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) actions. The agency will seek to complete as many actions as possible while tempering its expectations to avoid any significant pre-election missteps. While there is no consensus on whether the Biden administration’s commitment to policy shifts in chemical management has elicited desirable results, reasonable people will agree it...

No discussion of energy issues would be complete without some mention of the utility of used plastic as a feedstock in the production of fuels, energy and building block chemicals. In spring 2023, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution (Strategy) to identify voluntary actions to prevent plastic waste. Plastics recycling, including both mechanical and ‘advanced’, is core to achieving improved post-use plastics materials...

It seems like yesterday when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule prohibiting isopropylated phosphate (3:1) (PIP (3:1)), and for many in the manufacturing sector, the world got a little bit crazier. The EPA vowed to revise the final rule and did so on Nov. 24, 2023. The EPA’s proposal would amend the regulations for decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE) and PIP (3:1), two of the five persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) chemicals addressed in...

Unsurprisingly, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed on Oct. 31, to ban all uses of trichloroethylene (TCE) after determining it presents an unreasonable risk of injury to human health under conditions of use pursuant to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). TCE is widely used in cleaning and furniture-care products, degreasers, brake cleaners and tire repair sealants. Alternatives are available for many uses. The proposed rule would ban TCE’s manufacture, processing...

Ask just about anyone doing business in the US making or importing products that contain chemicals what they think about the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) new per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) reporting rule, and you will get a decidedly grumpy response. Granted, no businessperson welcomes any new chemical reporting obligation, but by any standard, the EPA’s 11 October 2023 final PFAS reporting rule is problematic and is inviting uniquely scathing criticism....

On September 28, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its long-overdue final rule under Section 8(a)(7) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The rule requires reporting and recordkeeping requirements for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). As discussed in this article, the final rule is not what many of us expected nor wanted....

Sustainable chemistry has become more central to business success than ever. Societal preferences and climate change implications are pressuring product manufacturers to develop, use and process sustainable chemicals. This trend is here to stay, and cultural, legal and regulatory drivers accelerating this trend are growing exponentially....

In a somewhat unexpected move, Congress enacted the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 (MoCRA) on December 29, 2022, as part of the Omnibus Appropriations Act. MoCRA significantly strengthens the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authority over cosmetic products. Key provisions are summarized in this article....

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on June 29, 2023, a new regulatory framework for addressing new per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and new uses of existing PFAS. The framework outlines the EPA’s planned approach when reviewing these chemicals to ensure that, before they are allowed to enter commerce, they meet the safety standard under Section 5 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). This article explains the significance of this development....

On June 20, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed significant new use rules (SNURs) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for 18 chemicals subject to premanufacture notices (PMNs). The rulemaking reflects a level of EPA discomfort with certain new chemicals derived from plastic waste. This article explains the significance of this proposal....

Few words inspire the panic that ‘polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS)’ does. Companies producing, processing, distributing and using (whether knowingly or not) these substances must be aware of expanding legal liability and take steps now to minimise risk. This article outlines key US per- and PFAS developments, the legal and commercial implications of these developments, and measures stakeholders should consider taking to limit liability....

The implementation of the game-changing 2016 Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, amending the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), is now a hotbed of legal dispute. Lawsuits challenging key aspects of the law’s implementation are piling up. While all are legally noteworthy, one citizen enforcement case in particular merits attention. As discussed below, two recent cases have raised novel issues pertinent to the scope of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s...

A major task we face in achieving circularity is ensuring that policies remain nimble in addressing environmental and public health challenges. Our suite of laws and their regulatory implementation sometimes reflect an unhelpful resistance to circularity, expressed in policies that are indifferent or antithetical to an efficient transition to true resource economy....

Chemicals are the foundational origin of just about everything we enjoy and cannot live without. The federal law that authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate industrial chemical substances is the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), an almost 47-year-old law significantly amended in 2016 by the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (Lautenberg). Lautenberg’s passage was a bipartisan triumph marking the do-over of a law that many...

Given the passage of time since the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was enacted in 1976, the public’s growing awareness of the potential for exposure from chemicals in “articles,” or finished goods, during use, and greater focus on the implications of end-of-life product disposal, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulation of articles under TSCA has shifted significantly. Historically, EPA elected not to regulate articles for the most part. EPA’s more recent...

The scope of what diligence is due in any corporate transaction has evolved greatly over the past decade, particularly with respect to transactions involving chemical products. Once upon a time, transactional due diligence involving chemical products, whether ‘neat’ (pure) chemicals, formulations or end-use products, typically consisted of a phase I or phase II environmental site assessment (ESA) focusing on identifying contamination derivative of chemical releases into environmental media...

By any standard, federal enforcement of environmental laws in the US has been uneven, to say the least. The prevailing perception is that democrats are ‘greener’ than are republicans when it comes to environmental enforcement. The data is quite scattered, however, and it would seem no party has cornered the environmental protection market. The Trump administration may be the exception that proves the rule. Most would agree civil and criminal enforcement case numbers were significantly...