California lawmakers have killed a bill that would have prohibited, beginning July 1, 2026, the sale and use of firefighter personal protective equipment (PPE) containing intentionally added PFAS, and would have required state regulators to align worker-safety rules with a future national standard for PFAS-free firefighting gear.
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) pressed EPA to craft guidance on how its just-completed Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) formaldehyde assessment will drive strict workplace limits on the ubiquitous chemical, as part of an interagency review process where USDA and others also echoed employers’ persistent criticism of EPA’s analysis.
Members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s (NASEM) standing toxicology committee are calling for new approaches to testing the dangers of human exposure to micro- and nano-plastics, particularly in aging veterans -- tests they say could lead to first-time occupational exposure limits for the materials.
The AFL-CIO and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) are urging EPA to strengthen its proposed TSCA rule for n-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) by banning more uses of the solvent and imposing tighter restrictions on continuing applications, saying the current version sidesteps the hierarchy of controls and will not adequately protect workers.
EPA has unveiled its long-awaited and controversial Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) formaldehyde assessment -- a pivotal factor in a pending TSCA evaluation of the chemical -- that generally retains conservative risk values that employers have long feared will lead to strict limits on workplace exposures.
A federal appellate court has for a second time denied the AFL-CIO’s petition to intervene in litigation over TSCA limits on methylene chloride to defend the rule against industry challenges, appearing to guarantee that no environmental or labor group will be able to step in if the next administration stops defending the case or seeks to settle it.
The AFL-CIO is again seeking approval to intervene in litigation over EPA’s TSCA rule for methylene chloride to defend the policy, saying the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has set a “quite low” bar for the step by granting a parallel bid from industry, even after it also denied the union’s first request earlier this month.
EPA’s Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) has published a divided -- and often critical -- review of the draft TSCA evaluation of formaldehyde that calls for some significant changes to its risk calculations while stressing that the several agency offices reviewing the ubiquitous chemical should be working in concert.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has approved a bid from the American Chemistry Council (ACC) to defend portions of EPA’s rule setting worker-protection and other mandates for use of the solvent methylene chloride while denying a parallel request from the AFL-CIO, giving the industry group an equal role with EPA in the case.
OSHA’s updated hazard communication standard (HCS) appears set to reach a July 19 deadline for legal challenges with no known industry suits that might seek to reverse its newly tightened chemical-labeling mandates -- a move that one industry attorney says appears to be driven by manufacturers’ focus on litigating EPA’s TSCA rules instead.