Stephanie Schwarz, J.D., is a Legal Fellow.  Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 1               Part 2               Part 3               Part 4 This is our final post in a series spurred by our review of 69 public files for new chemicals we received from EPA’s Docket Center.  For most of these chemicals, EPA made a determination […]

Jennifer McPartland, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.  Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Last night EDF submitted a request to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to extend the public comment period on its draft Alternative Testing Methods Strategic Plan under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). EPA held a public meeting about the draft Strategic Plan […]

Late yesterday, EDF joined fourteen other Petitioners in filing an Opening Brief in our case challenging EPA’s Prioritization Rule and Risk Evaluation Rule.  The Brief was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Our Brief argues that the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), as amended by the Lautenberg Act, requires EPA […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. One of the key reforms to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) made by 2016’s Lautenberg Act was the expansion of who can access confidential business information (CBI) submitted by companies to EPA.  The old law largely limited access to federal government employees and contractors.  Congress recognized the […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. EDF has learned from sources across the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that its political appointees are taking steps to systematically dismantle the agency’s ability to conduct broad risk reviews of chemicals and effectively address identified risks under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The assault is taking the […]

Stephanie Schwarz, J.D., is a Legal Fellow.  Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 1               Part 2               Part 3               Part 4 This is the third in a series of blog posts based on our frustrating, and frustrated, efforts to get information on premanufacture notifications (PMNs) for new chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).  […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. I was on vacation last week, so I missed two notable pronouncements from the American Chemistry Council (ACC) regarding the 2016 reforms to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and implementation of them by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). One was a statement issued by ACC upon publication […]

Stephanie Schwarz, J.D., is a Legal Fellow.  Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 1               Part 2               Part 3               Part 4 We recently started a series of blog posts describing what we did, and did not, get from the EPA Docket Center when we requested the public files on about 70 new chemicals, most of […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today submitted a request to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to extend the mere 15-day period EPA has provided for public comments on a proposed modification to a Significant New Use Rule (SNUR).  The proposed SNUR modification was published in the Federal Register just last […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Last August, Scott Pruitt announced that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would reverse course in its conduct of risk reviews of new chemicals under the reforms made in 2016 to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) by the Lautenberg Act.  The changes will effectively return the program to […]

Lindsay McCormick, is a Project Manager. Last week, EDF filed detailed comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the approaches it has presented for identifying potential candidates for prioritization under TSCA. EDF believes the purpose of prioritization is to provide an orderly, transparent process for EPA to use in working its way through the huge backlog […]

Stephanie Schwarz, J.D., is a Legal Fellow.  Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 1               Part 2               Part 3 At last month’s public meeting held by EPA to discuss changes it is making to its new chemical review program, the issue of public access to information about those chemicals and EPA’s review of them featured […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. This weekend EDF submitted detailed comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its implementation of changes to the New Chemicals Review Program, as well as comments responding to the agency’s draft New Chemicals Decision‐Making Framework. After the passage of the Lautenberg Act in June 2016, EPA started […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. [UPDATED 1-8-18:  See updates below] We have been blogging about damaging changes being made to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new chemicals review program for some time.  Despite the reforms made in 2016 under the Lautenberg Act that were intended to significantly strengthen new chemical reviews, Scott Pruitt’s […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist.  My colleague Ryan O’Connell assisted in the research described in this post. By the time the long-awaited reforms of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) passed in June of 2016, nearly all stakeholders had come to agree that we needed a stronger federal chemical safety system, one that […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. We’ve already blogged about how changes the agency is making to its reviews of new chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) are illegal as well as bad policy.  But an industry letter and attachment added last week to EPA’s new chemicals docket shows the chemical industry […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. EPA held a public meeting today on “Approaches to Identifying Potential Candidate Chemicals for Prioritization” under last year’s reforms made to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) by the Lautenberg Act. EPA provided brief opportunities for stakeholders to provide comments.  Four of us from EDF gave oral comments […]

Lindsay McCormick is a Project Manager.   This morning, CBS News focused on the tragic story of Kevin Hartley—a young man who died at the age of 21 while working with a product that contains methylene chloride. Kevin’s story, powerfully relayed by his mother Wendy, illustrates the need to ban high-risk uses of this chemical. […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. EPA held a public meeting today to present information on major changes it is making to its review of new chemicals under last year’s reforms made to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) by the Lautenberg Act. EPA provided brief opportunities for stakeholders to provide comments.  Two of […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the process of making some major changes to its policies and practices governing new chemical reviews.  This post discusses one of the most troubling ones.   As I have previously described, last year’s Lautenberg Act made extensive changes to section 5 of […]