Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
The Consumer Specialty Products Association found some nice things to say about it. DuPont did too. Even the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association acknowledged some improvements.
And the American Chemistry Council? Read More
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
The Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 was introduced in the U.S. Senate today by Senator Frank Lautenberg and is co-sponsored by Senators Amy Klobuchar, Charles Schumer, and Barbara Boxer.
In the TSCA reform debate, some things haven’t changed from last year: TSCA is just as badly in need of an overhaul, and consumers and the chemical industry’s customers have no more confidence in the safety of chemicals in use today than they did a year ago. States, other countries and the marketplace all continue to act to advance modern chemical safety policies and practices. We in the advocacy community are still waiting for the chemical industry to offer some of its own proposals for reform – though some individual companies and product associations have been more forthcoming.
In contrast, the 2011 version of the Safe Chemicals Act has changed in some important ways – and for the better. It includes a number of improvements over last year’s version that would both boost health protections and ease implementation and workability.
[Updated 5-9-11: Here’s a side-by-side comparing the 2011 version to the 2010 version of the Act.] Read More
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist. Allison Tracy is a Chemicals Policy Fellow.
With the chemical industry and now Congressional Republicans mounting a last-minute effort to derail the EPA’s long-time-in-coming enhancements to its Inventory Update Reporting (IUR) rule (see our last post), it’s worth examining their main objections. That examination reveals a sea of red herrings. Here are a few of the smelliest ones, discussed in detail in this post:
Red herring #1: EPA has failed to indicate how it will use the information it collects.
Red herring #2: Small businesses would be excessively burdened.
Red herring #3: More frequent reporting is a “needless” burden on the industry.
Red herring #4: EPA is expanding the IUR from data reporting to data-gathering.
Red herring #5: EPA’s requirement for retroactive reporting is unfair.
Red herring #6: Requiring electronic reporting is too inflexible.
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
[Update: Here are links to the Chairmen’s news release and letter to OMB.]
E&E News is reporting (subscription required) that House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton has called on the White House to scrap the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) soon-to-be-issued enhancements to the only routine reporting system for chemicals across the entire federal government.
The final EPA rule would expand EPA’s Inventory Update Reporting (IUR), which requires periodic reporting of chemicals subject to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The rule was sent to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on January 20 and is awaiting approval.
Chairman Upton’s move, in the form of a letter to OMB Director Jacob Lew cosigned by Environment and Economy Subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus, follows closely on the chemical industry’s loud complaints about the rule late last month at the GlobalChem conference, cosponsored by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and the Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA). What gives? Read More
Allison Tracy is a Chemicals Policy Fellow. Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
The November 31st deadline for the first batch of registrations under REACH (the European Union’s Regulation for Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) may have passed, but life is far from dull on the international scene of chemicals policy. As discussed in a previous post, chemicals policy enhancements are ramping up across the globe, many of them mirroring the innovations introduced under REACH.
In this post, we’ll discuss significant advances in Japan, Turkey and South Korea that drive home the message that the ripples from REACH are ever-widening. Read More
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
An article just out in Chemical Week by senior editor Kara Sissel simply nails it in describing the state of affairs on TSCA reform as it played out at last week’s GlobalChem conference.
The captions under the side-by-side photos of American Chemistry Council (ACC) President Cal Dooley and yours truly tell it all. Mr. Dooley laments the increasingly complex and unpredictable regulatory landscape that finally drove ACC to shift away from its longstanding opposition to TSCA reform. But my plea that it is long past time for ACC to come forward with its own specific proposals for that reform speaks to where things have been stuck for much of the past year. Read More
