EPA’s proposed TSCA rule for trichloroethylene (TCE) avoids taking a definitive stance on the long-simmering debate over contested research linking it to fetal heart defects, proposing a worker exposure limit based on that effect but also a less-stringent alternative that uses other effects, though even that option is much tougher than OSHA’s limits.
Employer attorneys are raising concerns that OSHA’s upcoming revisions to the Hazard Communication Standard, or HazCom, will impose an array of new and unpredictable burdens for the chemical industry on an international scale, most prominently a mandate to gather data on “any hazards” substances may cause.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is asking a federal court to formally bar EPA from using the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s (NASEM) contested peer review of the agency’s draft formaldehyde risk assessment in any of a litany of applications, including as support for strict workplace exposure limits under TSCA.
A workplace safety lawyer says OSHA could seek to cite employers for failing to comply with EPA's planned TSCA workplace exposure limits for several chemicals given the "very clear" intersection of the two agencies' missions, but will face several key legal questions if it tries to invoke "reach-over" authority to directly enforce TSCA mandates.
Nine trade groups are asking EPA to initiate a pre-proposal small-business review of its hotly anticipated formaldehyde rule even before finishing the risk evaluation the policy will be based on, saying that unusual step would help ensure small employers are aware of the rulemaking process and can prepare for -- or help avert -- strict new workplace limits.
OSHA has sent a long-pending final rule to update its chemical hazard communications standard (HCS) for White House review, after industry groups warned the proposed version would require them to gather a “vast” amount of new information on such substances -- and even support more stringent policies from other agencies.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed its review of EPA’s proposal to regulate trichloroethylene (TCE), setting the stage for renewed debate on which of two potential workplace exposure limits the agency should apply after a years-long clash over the solvent’s potential links to fetal heart defects.
Major unions are asking EPA to reconsider its proposed TSCA rule that would allow employers to continue active uses of carbon tetrachloride (CTC) with stricter worker protections, arguing both that the agency has overlooked some applications of the solvent entirely and that it should ban those where it “lacks evidence” firms can meet a strict exposure limit.
Trade groups and companies say EPA’s proposed TSCA rule for carbon tetrachloride (CTC) rests on an illegally strict workplace exposure limit, and improperly cuts OSHA out of the rulemaking process despite a statutory mandate to consult with peer agencies before treading into areas they regulate, among a host of other attacks.
Echoing chemical industry groups, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and J.D. Vance (R-OH) are pressing EPA to rework its proposed TSCA rule regulating methylene chloride to allow all uses of the solvent to continue as long as companies meet worker-protection mandates.