EPA Budget Would Increase Spending on Chemical Assessment and Control
EPA Budget/Chemical Control According to an EPA press release, today the Obama Administration proposed a FY 2013 budget of $8.344 billion for the agency. The budget is $105 million below the EPA’s enacted level for FY 2012, but it increases spending by $11 million, or approximately 16%, to “protect … Americans from harmful chemicals.” This increase for chemical […]
EPA Assistant Administrator Steve Owens Resigns
EPA Administration/Chemical Regulation: On Tuesday, October 25, 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the resignation of Assistant Administrator Steve Owens. Readers will recall that President Obama appointed Mr. Owens the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), which is the office implementing the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Federal […]
EPA Issues Testing Rules and a Significant New Use Rule for HPV Chemicals
TSCA/HPV Chemical Testing: On October 21, 2011, utilizing its authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), 15 U.S.C. §2601 et seq., EPA published two Federal Register notices announcing testing rules for certain high production volume (HPV) chemicals as well as significant new use rules (SNURs) for other HPV chemicals. HPV chemicals are those with a production/import volume […]
EPA's Chemical Screening Gets a Big Boost – From a Robot!
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 […]
EPA Requires Testing of 19 High Production Volume (HPV) Chemicals
TSCA/HPV Chemicals: On January 7, 2011, EPA published a final rule under section 4(a)(1)(B) of theToxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), (15U.S.C. 2603(a)(1)(B)), requiring manufacturers, importers, and processors to test 19 high production volume (HPV) chemicals. The rule, which takes effect on February 7, 2011, requires these persons to obtain screening level data for health and environmental effects and chemical fate, and […]