A chemical industry trade association is suing EPA over its first-time Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) ban on consumer uses of paint-strippers containing methylene chloride, charging the measure goes too far by unintentionally limiting access to some commercial uses even though it does not intend to.
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Group (ADAO) is urging EPA to perform a strict assessment of asbestos’ human health risk, citing in part findings by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and others that there is no safe level of exposure to the toxic mineral as some fear EPA will soften its analysis.
EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (NEJAC) is urging the agency to halt proposed rollbacks of an Obama-era rule strengthening safety requirements at industrial facilities as well as its risk assessment of the solvent ethylene oxide (EtO), warning that the efforts could increase public health risks for poor and minority communities.
Appellate judges appear to agree with EPA lawyers that labor and other groups generally lack standing to challenge the agency's framework rule for evaluating risks of existing chemicals under the revised toxics law, but they left the door open to sue over officials' decision to preclude legacy uses from the scope of any evaluation.
On the eve of a key appellate hearing, EPA and environmentalists are sparring over the groups' standing to challenge one of EPA's framework rules for implementing the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), responding to a court order that asks the parties to address the issue in the upcoming oral arguments.
A labor union attorney says environmental statutes' citizen suit provisions could give workers a powerful tool in their fight to reduce their exposures to hazardous chemicals, because laws such as the Clean Air Act impose much greater penalties for violations that increase exposures compared to workplace safety statutes.
EPA's recently finalized rule regulating renewed uses of asbestos expanded the number of applications subject to regulation but cut some of those applications from a related risk evaluation of existing uses, angering critics who say the agency is further narrowing any future toxics rule on existing uses and shows why a total ban on asbestos is needed.
Farmworker advocates are pressing the Trump administration to preserve a provision of the Obama-era rule updating EPA’s farmworker protection standards (WPS) that limits pesticide spraying when bystanders are present, arguing the application exclusion zone (AEZ) is needed to protect nearby workers and bystanders.
Democratic leaders in the Senate are urging EPA to ban commercial uses of the paint stripper methylene chloride, saying the Trump administration's decision to limit its ban to consumer uses and merely consider requiring additional training for workers using the chemical leaves a vulnerable population at risk.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB)is urging EPA to reassess its 26-year-old study on the potential risks from refineries’ accidental releases of hydrofluoric acid (HF), citing two recent refinery fires as highlighting concerns over whether the facilities’ risk management plans (RMPs) are adequate to control unplanned HF releases.