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On July 2, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced its modified ten-year regulatory review schedule. 86 Fed. Reg. 35239. FTC reviews its rules and industry guides on a ten-year schedule to ensure they remain relevant and not unduly burdensome. FTC publishes its review schedule each year, with adjustments made in response to public input, changes in the marketplace, and resource demands. FTC, in its discretion, may modify or reorder the schedule in the future to incorporate new...
On June 30, 2021, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®), the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), and the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health presented “TSCA Reform - Five Years Later.” This virtual conference marked the fifth Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Annual Conference, reflecting on the accomplishments and challenges since the implementation of the 2016 Lautenberg Amendments and where TSCA stands today. Speakers covered a variety of topics,...
On June 30, 2021, Bloomberg Law featured quotes from the TSCA Reform – Five Years Later conference regarding a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plan to revisit whether eight chemicals the agency already examined pose greater risks to workers and communities than the Trump administration found. The eight chemicals are seven solvents—methylene chloride, trichloroethylene (TCE), carbon tetrachloride, n-methylpyrrolidone (NMP), 1-bromopropane (1-BP),...
July 1, 2021
Lynn L. Bergeson, “Avoiding costly supply chain disruption: a cautionary tale,” Financier Worldwide, July 2021.
By any independent standard, the US electronics industry is huge – it was worth over $300bn in 2019 – and growing annually. Would it surprise you to know that as big, essential and powerful as it is, a single rule issued in January of this year by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nearly brought this sector to a halt? To this day, the rule is causing extraordinary disruption as electric and electronic device manufacturers, importers, processors, distributors and others scramble to...
June 29, 2021
Manufacturers and Importers of 20 High-Priority Chemicals and 30 Organohalogen Flame Retardants Must Submit Data to EPA
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a final rule on June 29, 2021, that requires manufacturers (including importers) of 50 specified chemical substances to report certain lists and copies of unpublished health and safety studies to EPA. 86 Fed. Reg. 34147. EPA is issuing the final rule pursuant to Section 8(d) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the TSCA Health and Safety Data Reporting rule codified at 40 C.F.R. Part 716. The chemical substances subject to...
On June 17, 2021, Chemical Watch published insights from Christopher R. Blunck, Senior Regulatory Specialist, The Acta Group (Acta®), regarding a proposed per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) reporting rule that includes downstream users and small businesses with a lack of exemptions for the compounds’ occurrence as byproducts or impurities. That is "an extremely broad reporting requirement", said Christopher Blunck, of counsel with Bergeson & Campbell. The...
June 17, 2021
Lynn L. Bergeson Quoted in Bloomberg Law Article “EPA’s Flame Retardant Rule Offers Chemical Lesson for Businesses”
On April 9, 2021, Bloomberg Law featured comments by Lynn L. Bergeson, President, The Acta Group (Acta®) regarding a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule restricting industrial uses of a popular flame retardant is causing headaches for equipment manufacturers and demonstrating how the nation’s chemicals law can upend global supply chains. But the Environmental Protection Agency was besieged by industry pleas for help soon after the new administration came...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on June 10, 2021, three actions intended to protect communities from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The actions include proposing a rule designed to obtain comprehensive data on more than 1,000 PFAS manufactured in the United States, withdrawing guidance that EPA believes weakened its July 2020 significant new use rule (SNUR) restricting certain long-chain PFAS, and publishing a final rule that incorporates three...
On May 13, 2021, the Getting Ready for Baby Campaign, a collaboration of over 100 non-governmental organizations (NGO), released a report entitled Peeling Back the Green Façade: Calling out “Greenwashing” in the Crib Mattress Market as Lessons on Brand Manipulation of Health and Environmental Claims. Using the research for the report, Clean and Healthy New York (CHNY) filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on May 13, 2021, requesting that FTC investigate and...
Emerging tools enabled by nanotechnology, synthetic biology, and other innovative technologies are today increasingly supplementing the ploughs and tractors so emblematic of the agricultural community of the past. These precision farming tools are ensuring a sustainable food supply otherwise threatened by climate change and population growth, among other global challenges, while diminishing worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Genetically modified E coli is being used to produce...