By November 2021, the European Union (EU) is requiring that clothing, accessories, footwear and other textiles (such as furniture upholstery and bed linens) be essentially free of 33 “CMR” substances, including lead, cadmium, arsenic, hexavalent chromium, formaldehyde, several phthalates, and
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TSCA Chemical Inventory “Reset” Reporting Deadline: October 5
EPA Finalizes New TSCA User Fees
A new framework of fees to cover the costs of implementing the provisions of the 2016 amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) will go into effect October 1st, under a final rule issued yesterday by EPA. The fees
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Prop 65: Notes from the Front
Live from San Francisco, Kelley Green Law Blog is reporting today from the Prop 65 Clearinghouse 2018 Conference …. the largest annual assemblage dedicated to the cottage industry that is California’s “Proposition 65.” Uniquely, the Clearinghouse conference brings together the
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For a Clean Slate, Don’t Forget About EPA’s Audit Policy
After almost a decade of neglect, EPA is once again actively encouraging facilities to utilize the agency’s Audit Policy to “address noncompliance in an efficient and timely manner.” Over the last several months, EPA has taken steps to promote use
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Its Go Time for the New Proposition 65 Warning Regulations
Today, August 30, 2018 … marks the date that the 2016 amendments to the warning requirements of California Proposition 65 go into full effect. This brings to a close the two year phase-in period for the new “safe harbor” warning
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This is Not a Dream … Agencies Actually are Reviewing the Cancer Risks of Night Shift Work (UPDATED)
** UPDATE 8/29/2018 ** NTP just released a draft report recommending that “frequent and long term night shift work … that causes circadian disruption is known to be a human carcinogen” based on human studies.
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Reach of Consumer Product Chemical Disclosures Set to Expand Significantly with Launch of New EU Database
The European Union (EU) is about to dramatically expand the reach of mandatory chemical disclosure requirements for consumer products. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced recently that it is preparing to launch, by the end of 2019, a new database
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California Proposition 65: Beware of Liability for Website Sales
Historically, the bulk of Prop 65 actions have come from plaintiff attorneys sending waves of people into retail stores in California to purchase and then test products for possible exposures to listed chemicals. This paradigm is shifting increasingly to a
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Science Transparency: Not a New Concept for EPA
“Science and the scientific process must inform and guide decisions … The public must be able to trust the science and the scientific process informing public policy decisions.”
Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt introducing the 2018 proposal he championed on
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Prop 65 Court Win for Cereal Manufacturers Sets the Table for Further Challenges to Warning Requirements
In a remarkable and perhaps precedent-setting decision, a California appellate court sided with cereal manufacturers in ruling last week that Proposition 65 cancer warnings for acrylamide were preempted by federal policy encouraging the consumption of more whole grains. In overturning a lower court ruling finding no preemption, the three-judge panel of the state appeals court gave remarkable deference to Food and Drug Administration policy and guidance which, the court stated, “contained persuasive reasoning why Proposition 65 acrylamide warnings on whole grain cereals would mislead consumers and lead to health detriments.”
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