Chemical Safety

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is raising early attacks on a workplace exposure limit in EPA’s draft TSCA evaluation of formaldehyde, calling it unreasonably strict and at odds with science -- even as the agency itself acknowledges that key challenges in implementing that figure could lead to a different value in its eventual rulemaking.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is blocking inclusion of a Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) reauthorization in an upcoming spending bill -- a proposal that the source says may be the “last shot” to revive the lapsed program, a top chemical industry official says.

EPA has released its final TSCA risk-management rule for chrysotile asbestos, aiming to phase out the carcinogen from chlor-alkali production on a sliding timeline that will run between five and 12 years based in part on the alternative technology to which a facility is switching -- a win for industry groups that argued the proposed two-year deadline was impossible.

EPA’s long-awaited draft TSCA evaluation of formaldehyde says all of its industrial uses and many commercial applications of the ubiquitous chemical pose “unreasonable risk” to workers and others, which could form the basis for a landmark rule regulating or even banning such uses amid industry’s broad attacks on the agency’s science and review process.

Chemical companies and trade groups are renewing calls to loosen EPA’s impending rule setting strict worker-protection requirements for the solvent methylene chloride, arguing in recent White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) meetings that the agency must adopt broader exemptions and longer compliance timelines in order to make the policy workable.

EPA chemicals chief Michal Freedhoff used a March 5 speech to reiterate her defenses of the agency’s approach to workplace safety in a series of landmark chemical-safety rules, seeking to counter arguments that it is improperly stepping into areas that should be the domain of OSHA or older environmental programs.

Environmental groups are arguing that EPA’s first draft TSCA risk evaluation since the Trump era fails to consider the “aggregate” risks workers and other vulnerable populations face from toxic chemicals, as they press the agency to instead assess -- and eventually regulate -- dangers from multiple sources at once.

OSHA’s proposed safety standard for emergency responders includes a call for information on claims that firefighters face health risks from toxic, long-lasting chemicals known as PFAS that are used as water- and oil-proofing agents in their protective gear -- the latest step in a long-running debate on that question.

Environmentalists are renewing their calls for EPA to “ban” vinyl chloride, one of five substances the agency is considering prioritizing for risk evaluation under TSCA, saying such a rule is needed to protect workers who use either the cancer-causing chemical or plastics made from it -- including the ubiquitous polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

The federal district judge hearing litigation over an EPA formaldehyde assessment that employers fear could drive strict workplace limits lobbed skeptical questions at all attorneys involved at a hearing on the parties’ dueling requests to either dismiss the suit or immediately block all use of the contested document, showing few hints on his plans for the case overall.