Chemical Safety

OSHA and labor unions are opposing building industry groups’ call to sever and transfer the sector’s lawsuit over agency beryllium standards from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to the 8th Circuit, which has stayed a long-pending challenge from other industry groups over the agency’s standards.

Building industry groups are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to grant their request to shift pending litigation over OSHA’s beryllium worker exposure rule to the 8th Circuit, arguing that their claims in the suit are substantially similar to other industry challenges to the rule in that circuit.

EPA toxics officials are considering extending the deadline for companies to self-identify to the agency that they manufacture, process or import one of 20 chemicals the agency plans to assess in the coming months as officials grapple with how to divvy up the $1.35 million assessment fee in the face of industry confusion and concern.

EPA’s draft risk evaluation of the common solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) finds multiple uses present unreasonable risks to exposed workers and consumers under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), even though the agency declined to use a controversial study indicating potential for congenital heart defects that industry has long disputed.

EPA’s toxics chief says the agency is grappling with how to obtain more data about chemicals from companies while having limited ability to protect it as confidential business information (CBI) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), an issue industry sources say limits companies’ interest and ability to share studies with EPA.

In a rare moment of agreement, the chemical industry and environmentalists are generally urging the Trump administration to provide more transparency into the actions of its Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) new chemicals review program, though the two sides are targeting different aspects of the program for increased transparency.

Even as EPA rolls back its facility safety rules, the White House is proposing to eliminate fiscal year 2021 funding for two key chemical safety programs -- the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) and the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, worrying industry officials who fear the plan will undermine protections.

EPA will “probably” do a supplemental risk evaluation on legacy uses of asbestos under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), according to the agency’s toxics chief, in an effort to address the recent appellate decision requiring officials to assess such uses while not delaying work agency staff have already done analyzing asbestos' ongoing uses.

EPA is defending its first-time toxics rule banning consumer uses of paint strippers containing methylene chloride from dual challenges filed by a chemical industry group and a coalition of labor and environmental groups, charging the industry claims fail on the merits while the coalition’s arguments are “unripe” and “unreviewable.”

Pressure is mounting on Congress to put aside partisan differences and reauthorize the Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program before it expires in April, pressure that is likely to rise in the wake of EPA’s rollback of its related Risk Management Plan (RMP) program.