TSCA Reform: Guest Columnist: Irene Hantman University of Maryland Law Fellow US EPA Office of Civil Enforcement Waste and Chemical Enforcement Division On April 14, 2011, Senator Lautenberg of New Jersey introduced the 2011 Safe Chemicals Act (2011 SCA), almost a year after he introduced a similar bill (S. 3209) that failed to garner sufficient […]
Green Chemistry/Sustainable Supply Chain Management: The Green Chemistry and Commerce Council (GC3) recently published a report titled, Meeting Customers’ Needs for Chemical Data: A Guidance Document for Suppliers. The Guidance Document is designed to improve supply chain communication between suppliers and their customers concerning chemical identities and health and safety data. In the report, leading […]
Green Chemistry: Readers will recall that the Green Ribbon Science Panel convened on February 4, 2011 to discuss its role in advising DTSC on green chemistry matters. During that call, the Panel agreed to arrange itself into three subcommittees to work on specific aspects of the Safer Consumer Product Alternative Regulations. Below is an excerpt from the […]
Foreign/Turkey: There are fewer than two weeks remaining to complete registrations under Turkey’s new “Bylaw on the Inventory and Control of Chemicals.” March 31, 2011, is the deadline for registering chemical substances imported or manufactured at or above 1 metric tonne per year. Turkey’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) will use the information to establish […]
TSCA/TSCA Reform: The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) posted the video from its recent event on the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the primary federal statute governing the safety of chemicals in U.S. commerce. Readers less familiar with CHF should know that it is a Philadelphia-based non-profit that aims to foster an understanding of chemistry’s […]
Chemical Screening: On March 10, 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officially launched a robust new tool for screening chemicals for health and environmental hazards. It’s a robot called the Tox21 Robotic Testing System, or “ToRTS” for readers preferring acronyms. Robots have been used previously for chemical testing, but ToRTs appears to be one of the […]
REACh: The EU public interest environmental law group, ClientEarth, recently released a series of progress reports summarizing Member State activities under the European Union (EU) regulation: Registration, Evaluation, and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACh). Each report reviews a different Member State’s efforts to implement and enforce REACh. Reports also are available for three non-Member State countries that have enacted REACh – Lichtenstein, Norway, […]
TSCA: As part of EPA’s initiative to increase transparency under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), on February 10, 2011, the Agency sent a letter to five companies informing them that the identities of 14 chemicals contained in certain health and safety studies were ineligible for protection from public disclosure. The studies are “substantial risk” reports that the companies submitted […]
REACh: On February 11, 2011, the European Commission (EC or Commission) announced that six substances of very high concern (SVHC) have been moved from the so-called “Candidate List” to Annex XIV of the regulation known as “REACh.” Annex XIV lists those substances subject to the “authorisation” procedures set out in Title VII of the regulation. The six […]
Green Chemistry Regulations: On February 4, 2011, the Green Ribbon Science Panel (GRSP), a panel of experts advising the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) on green chemistry-related matters, convened via teleconference to consider how it might better fulfill its role as an advisor to the Department. The teleconference focused on GRSP process rather than on substantive […]
