Industry experts are urging chemical manufacturers to proactively share occupational exposure data with EPA during TSCA risk evaluations of existing chemicals, even if the data was collected for other regulatory purposes, and provide contextual details that could result in more accurate assessments.
A medical sterilizer is suing EPA over its rule limiting occupational exposures to ethylene oxide (EtO) under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), a move that comes after the agency announced it will reconsider its air toxics rules for such facilities and puts more pressure on EPA to overturn a key EtO risk assessment.
Industry is pressing Trump administration officials to make numerous changes to its draft scoping document for the TSCA risk evaluation of vinyl chloride, with manufacturers arguing EPA must acknowledge “unreasonable risk” is not just any type of risk and pointing to existing protections for workers.
EPA deputy chemicals chief Nancy Beck is reminding agency science advisors that TSCA evaluations inform regulations that have “real consequences” for both workers and the general public who need to use chemicals such as 1,3-butadiene, and urged them to let staff know if the Biden-era evaluation missed something or is “overly conservative.”
A leading chemical industry attorney is urging the Trump administration to engage industry and other stakeholders in strengthening the coordination between EPA and OSHA, arguing that a newly issued memorandum of understanding (MOU) fails to provide the necessary clarity on their respective regulatory roles.
The Trump EPA is signaling plans to scale back Biden-era approaches for evaluating -- and thus regulating -- worker and other risks under TSCA, asking a federal appellate court to remand the so-called “framework” rule so that officials can reconsider it “in its entirety,” Nancy Beck, EPA’s newly appointed deputy chemicals chief, told the court.
The Biden EPA has released for public comment a draft scoping document that outlines its plans for what uses of -- and occupational exposures from -- vinyl chloride the agency’s TSCA evaluation will consider, although the incoming Trump administration will craft the evaluation and may have different ideas of how to do so.
OSHA and EPA have released an agreement months in the making that outlines how the two agencies will share information and coordinate when EPA is reviewing workers’ safety in its TSCA existing chemical evaluations and enforcing risk management rules, while reiterating the two agencies’ unique authorities and responsibilities.
An EPA draft evaluation of a phthalate known as DCHP finds that inhalation exposure to the widely used plasticizer presents unreasonable risks to worker’s health, a finding that if finalized would require the agency to write risk management rules to address risks stemming from nine “conditions of use” (COU) that contribute to the finding.
EPA’s final TSCA evaluation for the phthalate DIDP finds that six of the chemical’s uses pose “unreasonable risk” to workers warranting regulation -- a significant departure from its earlier draft that found risk from just one use -- likely teeing up attacks from industry groups that requested the review, and could now ask the incoming Trump administration to redo it.