The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved OSHA’s final rule updating the hazard communication standard (HCS) that governs safety labels for toxic, flammable and otherwise dangerous chemicals, after employers and trade groups warned that the 2021 proposal would massively expand data-gathering requirements.
EPA has formally published its TSCA chrysotile asbestos rule, starting a 60-day clock for potential court challenges and a rolling series of compliance deadlines for industries to phase out the mineral -- starting with bans on new imports or installation of several asbestos-based products that are now set to take effect in late November.
EPA will use an industry “workshop” next month to unveil standard “occupational exposure scenarios” (OES) developed by staff to assess potential worker exposures as part of its TSCA risk evaluations of existing chemicals -- a move that could help address industry complaints that those reviews greatly overstate occupational risks.
Nine congressional Republicans and one Democrat are pressing EPA to loosen an exposure limit in its draft TSCA risk evaluation of formaldehyde, arguing that adopting the proposed figure would result in a “de facto ban” of the ubiquitous chemical despite the agency’s statements that it will consider costs and practicability in any rule based on the review.
A coalition of labor groups alongside environmentalists is reiterating its calls for new or revamped semiconductor facilities to commit to environmental and safety measures, including limiting PFAS exposures, as the Commerce Department begins awarding funds under a new program aimed at rebuilding the domestic semiconductor industry.
Just-released fiscal year 2024 spending legislation keeps OSHA and other Labor Department (DOL) worker-protection agencies at their current funding despite an overall cut to the department, while preserving some of the budget for the lapsed Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standard (CFATS) program -- which could allow Congress to revive it later in the year.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is raising early attacks on a workplace exposure limit in EPA’s draft TSCA evaluation of formaldehyde, calling it unreasonably strict and at odds with science -- even as the agency itself acknowledges that key challenges in implementing that figure could lead to a different value in its eventual rulemaking.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is blocking inclusion of a Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) reauthorization in an upcoming spending bill -- a proposal that the source says may be the “last shot” to revive the lapsed program, a top chemical industry official says.
EPA has released its final TSCA risk-management rule for chrysotile asbestos, aiming to phase out the carcinogen from chlor-alkali production on a sliding timeline that will run between five and 12 years based in part on the alternative technology to which a facility is switching -- a win for industry groups that argued the proposed two-year deadline was impossible.
EPA’s long-awaited draft TSCA evaluation of formaldehyde says all of its industrial uses and many commercial applications of the ubiquitous chemical pose “unreasonable risk” to workers and others, which could form the basis for a landmark rule regulating or even banning such uses amid industry’s broad attacks on the agency’s science and review process.