Environmentalists are pushing EPA to tighten its new draft risk assessment of formaldehyde by setting a cancer estimate based at least in part on the ubiquitous chemical’s links to leukemia, rejecting agency arguments that while such a link exists, the studies establishing it are too uncertain to use in an Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) review.
Industry groups are calling for EPA to rework its draft formaldehyde risk assessment to address what they say is a long list of scientific faults, ranging from the agency’s handling of a controversial workplace-exposure study to a failure to “harmonize” its approach to evaluating the chemical’s cancer risks with 2005 guidelines.
EPA plans to “learn from” OSHA’s enforcement of workplace chemical-exposure limits as it prepares for the demands of enforcing new TSCA risk management rules, a spokesperson says, while an industry attorney sees a formal memorandum of understanding (MOU) or other partnership between the two agencies as an option to aid those efforts.
Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) Chair Katherine Lemos has resigned with three years left in her term, reportedly citing “eroded confidence” in the body’s mission and priorities, months after the Senate confirmed two new CSB members and just days after the announcement of President Joe Biden’s latest nominee.
EPA is refusing an array of requests from industry and members of Congress to extend the June 13 comment deadline on its latest draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment of formaldehyde, arguing that criticism of its development process is unfounded and that there will be more chances for the public to weigh in during peer review.
A top Republican on the Senate environment committee is strongly opposing Democrats’ latest bill to ban asbestos uses, arguing during a June 9 hearing that OSHA and EPA should address the material’s risks through rulemaking instead of legislation, in a sign the measure faces an uphill battle to win bipartisan support needed to break any filibuster.
EPA has quietly released workplace exposure limits for five chemicals that will be subject to upcoming TSCA rules, appearing to lay the groundwork not just for those proposals but also a potential reversal on trichloroethylene (TCE), where the agency has prepared two limits -- one based on the Trump-era risk determination and a stricter second option using research the prior administration rejected.
Unions, environmentalists and a slew of academics and former OSHA officials are urging EPA to stand behind its reversals of Trump-era TSCA policies governing evaluation of workplace chemical exposures, arguing that an industry call to unwind the new stances is based on “myths” about existing worker-safety rules and voluntary protections.
Agriculture groups are raising new claims that EPA’s draft hazard assessment of formaldehyde downplayed or even ignored the ubiquitous chemical’s use in “animal industries,” and failed to gather input from the Agriculture Department (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the two agencies most familiar with those sectors.
A new study from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) warns that there are major data gaps on risks posed by indoor exposures to a variety of chemicals and mixtures in part because even well-studied contaminants can behave differently in indoor environments, potentially boosting recent calls for OSHA to develop indoor air safety standards.