Archive for March 2022
J&J’S Controversial Asbestos Prison Testing Resurfaces in Baby Powder Lawsuit
Bloomberg by Jeff Feely New Brunswick, NJ More than 50 years ago, nearly a dozen men incarcerated outside of Philadelphia enrolled in an experiment funded by Johnson & Johnson, according to unsealed documents. Now, those studies have come back to haunt the world’s largest maker of health-care products. In one study, inmates were paid to be injected…
Read MoreEPA Adopts New Astm Standard for Phase I Environmental Site Assessments
JD Supra Washington, DC Environmental Protection Agency, on March 14, 2022, issued both a final rule incorporating revised ASTM International standard practices, ASTM International’s E1527–21 ‘‘Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments: Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Process,’’ and a proposed rule soliciting comment on this action. The final rule incorporates the new ASTM standard as one of three…
Read MoreEPA Proposes Regulations to Plan for Hazardous Substance Discharge in Adverse Weather Conditions
EPA Washington, DC EPA proposed new requirements for certain facilities to plan for worst-case discharges of Clean Water Act (CWA) hazardous substances. A worst-case discharge is the largest foreseeable discharge in adverse weather conditions, including those due to climate change. Facilities subject to the proposed rule are required to prepare response plans for worst-case…
Read MoreEPA Takes Action to Continue Addressing Pfas in Commerce
EPA National EPA is announcing two important actions to safeguard communities from products containing Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS). First, as part of EPA’s effort to identify, understand and address PFAS contamination leaching from fluorinated containers, the agency is notifying companies of their obligation to comply with existing requirements under the Toxics Substances Control Act (TSCA) to…
Read MoreBy March 2023 All Cleveland Rentals Built Before 1978 Must Be Certified As Lead-Safe
WKYC Cleveland, OH Cleveland has just a year left to roll out its new lead-safe requirements. The city is enforcing the lead rules a few ZIP codes at a time. By March 2023, all rentals built before 1978 – the year Congress banned lead paint – must be certified with the city as lead-safe. After…
Read MoreHalf of Americans Live With the Legacy of Childhood Lead Poisoning
Health Day by Denise Mann National – If you were born before 1996, there’s a good chance you were exposed to high levels of lead as a kid, and new research suggests this may have harmed your IQ and boosted your chances of lead-related health concerns down the road. Fully 170 million, or more than half…
Read MorePA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH RELEASED NEW LEAD REPORTS
MyChesCo Harrisburg, PA The Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) recently released two new lead poisoning reports for the state of Pennsylvania: the Birth Cohort Report and the Childhood Lead Surveillance Report. The findings include data and statistics from 2017 to 2020. One in three Pennsylvania children with Medicaid health insurance are not getting tested for lead poisoning before…
Read MoreEPA Settles With Tesla Over Clean Air Act Violations at Fremont, CA Facility
EPA San Francisco, CA EPA announced a settlement with Tesla Motors Inc. EPA found Clean Air Act violations at their automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, Calif. This settlement aligns with EPA’s National Compliance Initiative, Creating Cleaner Air for Communities by Reducing Excess Emissions of Harmful Pollutants. Under the settlement, Tesla agreed to pay a $275,000 penalty. Click here…
Read MoreInteraction With Lung Cells Transforms Asbestos Particles
University of Pennsylvania – Penn Today Philadelphia, PA Biomedical researchers have spent many years trying to understand how asbestos causes disease, though multiple pieces of the puzzle remain unknown. Taking a completely different approach, an international team led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, looked instead at how the interactions change the mineral itself. The research…
Read MoreEPA Extends Comment Period for Draft Scope of Asbestos Part 2 Risk Evaluation to Be Conducted Under TSCA
EPA Washington, DC Following EPA’s June 2016 designation of asbestos as one of the first ten chemicals to undergo risk evaluation under TSCA, as amended by Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, EPA initially focused the risk evaluation for asbestos on chrysotile asbestos as this is the only asbestos fiber type…
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