The US EPA has proposed its National Enforcement Initiatives (“NEI”) for calendar years 2017 through 2019. US EPA develops a set of NEI every three years, focusing federal resources on industries with noncompliance issues on a regional or... Read More

The Department of Defense (DOD) has published a final rule that amends Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) subpart 223.71 to better align the DFARS with the current provisions set forth in 10 U.S.C. 2692, [ enhanced version available... Read More

EPA has announced that it will begin requiring natural gas processing facilities to file Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reports, although the announcement did not include a timeline for doing so. The agency had been under pressure by environmental groups... Read More

By Joyce A. Gentry The US EPA has released the Second Integrated Urban Air Toxics Report to Congress. This is the final of two reports required by the 1990 Clean Air Act (CAA) to inform Congress on the process in reducing public health risks from... Read More

Prior posts have noted the wide diversity of selection factors (well beyond Darwin's original thesis) that are able to influence evolution, or what individuals of a population will survive to procreate and define the nature of the future population... Read More

By Steven M. Siros Recent actions by Senator Barbara Boxer may have sounded the death knell for TSCA reform in 2014. On September 18, 2014, Senator Boxer unveiled what she characterized as revisions to a TSCA reform bill that had been being worked... Read More

The Legal Implications of the Phthalate’s Recently Amended Candidate List Entry By Herb Estreicher, Partner, Keller and Heckman LLP On 17 December 2014, Echa amended the entry for Bis (2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) on the candidate list... Read More

By E. Lynn Grayson A recent lawsuit filed by 10 environmental groups against EPA alleges that EPCRA Section 313 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reporting should apply to oil and gas extraction companies. The environmental groups want TRI data regulatory... Read More

On March 10, 2015, Senators Tom Udall (D-NM), David Vitter (R-LA), and a coalition of 15 additional Democratic and Republican Senators, introduced the “Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act” (S. 697), [ enhanced version... Read More

By George Gigounas and Rachael E. Yourtz California is steadily implementing its landmark Green Chemistry Initiative, which increases regulation and oversight of consumer product chemical exposures in important ways. In a recently published Work... Read More

Prior posts have noted the numerous studies involving various animals that have indicated the potential estrongenic effects from exposure to BPA. Prior posts have also noted that the primary vector of exposure is cash register receipts. In 2008, the... Read More

The Canadian government recently took action to ban microbeads, very small particles found in a variety of consumer and personal care products that may pose adverse environmental impacts in rivers, lakes, and oceans after they are washed down the drain... Read More

Prior posts have noted some of the chemical and adverse health effects that arise from the smoking of tobacco; a recent post also discussed the science developed to date regarding so-called thirdhand smoke. Children who grow up in apartment buildings... Read More

By Steven M. Siros On March 13, 2015, the Environmental Appeals Board ("EAB") struck down a landmark $2,751,800 penalty that had been imposed on Elementis Chromium for its alleged failure to comply with the Toxic Substances Control Act's... Read More

By Sheila A. Millar and Nathan A. Cardon From one corner of the country to the other – literally, from California to Maine – industry is facing a growing number of green chemistry initiatives, each giving states varying degrees of authority... Read More