Chemical Safety

EPA’s acting chemicals chief is detailing a series of steps to toughen reviews of new chemicals, including dropping what critics said were overly optimistic assumptions on workers’ use of protective gear, expanding the scope of the reviews and increasing the use of enforcement orders after approving pre-manufacture notices (PMNs).

OSHA is floating the first update to its Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) since 2012 -- a move that would more closely align the policy with current international guidelines for chemical labeling in the workplace and could also drive a new effort to incorporate those same requirements into EPA rules.

Employers say EPA’s finding that workers face “unreasonable risks” from the dye ingredient pigment violet 29 (PV29) rests in large part on misunderstandings of industrial hygiene practices, and they are urging the agency to work with OSHA and other safety regulators to address those flaws before crafting any rules based on its assessment.

Unions and environmental groups are asking courts to overturn EPA’s findings on whether workers face “unreasonable risks” from a host of chemicals including asbestos and the solvent methylene chloride, even as the agency itself is wrestling with whether to craft new rules for the substances in addition to OSHA standards.

OSHA is agreeing to strengthen its involvement in EPA’s program for reviewing new chemicals’ potential hazards before they enter the marketplace, but the new memorandum of understanding (MOU) seems to exclude evaluations of existing chemicals even though EPA has faced calls to boost its consideration of worker safety in its risk reviews.

A federal appellate court is slated to hear arguments in March in the long-running suits brought by industry, labor and environmental groups seeking to reverse EPA’s first-time TSCA rule banning consumer uses of paint strippers containing methylene chloride, marking an early legal marker for how the Biden administration may address such rules.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) is pushing EPA to tighten its assessment of workplace risks from pigment violet 29 (PV29), arguing that the agency’s draft evaluation of the chemical underestimates the dangers of worker exposures, especially amid a respirator shortage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

OSHA’s final revisions to beryllium worker exposure standards follow through on the agency’s proposal to “tailor” the rule’s application to the shipyard and construction industries, setting up potential legal battles with health and labor and industry groups that have said various aspects of the proposal lack a legal or scientific basis.

OSHA is finalizing its rule to “clarify” key elements of the 2017 general-industry exposure standards for beryllium including a new definition of “work areas” that won support from unions as a way to ease compliance with the standards and thus bolster worker protections, even as litigation over the underlying policy continues.

Chemical industry groups and other sectors are looking to Congress to reauthorize the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) chemical facility safety program before its looming July 23 expiration, although one industry source says it is unlikely that a reauthorization bill would include any proposed policy revisions to the program.