Chemical Safety

A federal judge is grappling with tough questions on standing and review standards as he weighs whether to dismiss on both procedural and substantive grounds a potentially precedent-setting suit challenging EPA’s denial of a Toxic Substances Control Act’s (TSCA) citizen petition which asked the agency to ban drinking water fluoridation.

EPA is rejecting calls from former officials, labor and other advocates to exercise special “emergency” authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to quickly address the risks of methylene chloride, the widely used solvent, to workers and others arguing that the agency’s draft risk evaluation does not justify taking such an action.

Major industry organizations are renewing their concerns over OSHA’s proposal to revise the standards for occupational exposure to beryllium and beryllium compounds in the shipyard and construction sectors, with the groups warning that the plan might be unlawful -- a hint of possible legal challenges if OSHA finalizes the plan.

As EPA’s ban on consumer uses of paint strippers containing methylene chloride (MC) takes effect, former officials are urging the agency to quickly adopt a host of emergency limits on commercial and other uses of the substance, citing a recent draft assessment that found they pose “unreasonable risks” to workers and others that must quickly be addressed.

Appellate judges are suggesting they may overturn a lower court ruling that limited the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board’s (CSB) ability, as part of an accident investigation, to subpoena documents to study risks of “potential” releases of hazardous chemicals into the environment.

The Trump administration has issued a final rule that rolls back Obama-era chemical facility safety requirements even as officials previewed its legal defenses against all but certain challenges from Democratic states and environmentalists who had threatened to sue over the 2018 proposal that the agency largely codified.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is criticizing the Defense Department’s (DOD) approach for developing a new occupational exposure limit (OEL) for the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), including DOD’s decision to exclude a controversial study EPA has used to set TCE risk values to protect against fetal heart malformations.

A federal judge has rejected EPA’s effort to block environmentalists’ suit challenging the agency’s refusal to craft asbestos reporting rules under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), a potentially precedent-setting ruling that could further bolster plaintiffs’ efforts seeking to challenge EPA petition denials.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has denied environmentalists and labor groups’ challenges to the scope of EPA’s framework rule for evaluating existing chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), but the court also rejected EPA’s push to preclude “legacy uses” and associated disposal when assessing risks.

A chemical industry group has told California regulators that while it has found one “possible” safer alternative to methylene chloride in paint and varnish stripping products, it is not clear whether the alternative is safe enough to win state approval, highlighting the difficulty regulators face as they seek to ban such products due in part to worker risks.