Category: Chemicals

Today’s workplace uses thousands of chemicals, many of which are hazardous. The resources in this section will help guide you in the safe and legal identification, storage, transport, and use of these chemicals, and in making sure that your employees right to know how to be safe around such substances is provided, as required by law.

EPA Takes Charge of Ohio Train Derailment Cleanup

On February 21, 2023, the EPA announced it would take charge of the cleanup from a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that released hazardous chemicals into the environment. The Norfolk Southern train derailment occurred on February 3, 2023. The company reported that an unknown number of the 150 train cars had derailed, but 20 […]

Back to Basics: Hazardous Air Pollution

Back to Basics is a weekly feature that highlights important but possibly overlooked information that any EHS professional should know. This week, we examine hazardous air pollution and the EPA’s strategies for dealing with climate change. Following the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that happened in early February, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has […]

EPA Updates SCIL List

On January 12, 2023, the EPA announced updates to the Safer Chemicals Ingredients List (SCIL), which “is a list of chemical ingredients, arranged by functional-use class, that the Safer Choice Program has evaluated and determined to be safer than traditional chemical ingredients. This list is designed to help manufacturers find safer chemical alternatives that meet […]

PFAS Expanded Reporting Requirements and Bans in 2023

Industry will need to stay on its toes to remain in compliance with the shifting and complex reporting requirement for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the regulatory pipeline for 2023, 2024, and beyond. And some states, such as Maine, are bringing rules into effect to ban these chemicals. These requirements are negatively impacting consumer […]

The EPA’s New PFAS Analytic Tools

The EPA unveiled new website tools, the PFAS Analytic Tools, this month.  Designed to help the “public, researchers, and other stakeholders better understand potential PFAS sources in their communities,” the tools provide “multiple sources of information in one spot with mapping, charting, and filtering functions,” which allows the public to see where testing has been […]

TCEQ Compelled to Release Ethylene Oxide Assessment Info

A state appeals court has ruled that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) must provide documents utilized to revise its ethylene oxide (EtO) risk assessment to the Sierra Club. Background EtO is a flammable gas used to sterilize medial equipment and, when mixed with other chemicals, as a building block to make dish soap, […]

EPA Adds 12 Chemicals to TRI

The EPA finalized its rule adding 12 chemicals to the list of chemicals subject to Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting, which provides important information about how these chemicals are being managed by facilities in a given community. “Available data show these chemicals have moderately high to high human health toxicity and/or are highly toxic to […]

Hefty TSCA Fee Hikes Proposed

The EPA in November released a notice to modify and supplement its proposed revisions to the Fees for the Administration of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Rule. The proposed fee increases are substantial. The TSCA Fees Rule was first promulgated in 2018. The 2016 Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21stCentury Act directs […]

EPA Announces Lead Exposure Reduction Strategy

The EPA recently unveiled its “Strategy to Reduce Lead Exposures and Disparities in U.S. Communities” to advance its objectives to protect the public from lead, with a renewed focus upon high-risk communities. The Agency announced the strategy during National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week in Omaha, Nebraska, which was once home to a large lead smelter […]

EPA Finalizes Drinking Water Contaminants List

The EPA published the Final Fifth Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate List (CCL 5), which will serve as the basis for the Agency’s regulatory considerations over the next five-year cycle under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The updated list includes a substantial expansion of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—an important first step toward identifying additional […]