Industry News

EPA 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 ensure unintentional PFAS contamination does not occur. The agency will also remove two PFAS from its Safer Chemical Ingredients List (SCIL) following a review of these substances. 

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By 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 a slow start, Cleveland saw a surge in lead-safe applications in the final months of 2021, according to data compiled by the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development at Case Western Reserve University, which audits the lead program. 

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Half 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 of all Americans who were alive in 2015, had early-life lead levels above 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood (?g/dL), the previous cut-off for concern, Reuben’s team found. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently changed this cut-off to 3.5 µg/dL, suggesting that even more people may be at risk for health issues due to childhood lead poisoning. 

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PA 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 their second birthday, despite the required Medicaid testing. One report shows that the rate of Pennsylvania children with elevated blood lead levels has remained essentially the same for the last two years at a rate of 4.65. This is a rate two times higher than children poisoned in Flint, Michigan, at the peak of the city’s crisis. 

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EPA 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.

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Interaction 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 grew out of a larger set of experiments on asbestos undertaken through Penn’s Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology. Though a common term, the word “asbestos” is not a scientific one, but rather is used in industry to refer to a wide range of minerals with varying structures and chemical compositions. 

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EPA 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 that is currently imported, processed, or distributed in the U.S. However, as a result of the November 2019 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Safer Chemicals Healthy Families v. EPA, EPA plans to evaluate legacy uses and associated disposals, other types of asbestos fibers in addition to chrysotile, and conditions of use of asbestos in talc and talc-containing products in a supplemental effort that is the focus of part 2 of the risk evaluation for asbestos. 

For the full text, click here.

To access the Draft Risk Evaluation, click here.

COVID Underscores Lack of Workplace Safety Whistleblower Protections

Denver Gazette by Kristian Hernandez

Fort Worth, TX – Federal and state agencies tasked with enforcing workplace safety rely on whistleblower complaints, but the agencies are so understaffed it can take years for complaints to be investigated, experts say. Advocates say the delays and the stigma associated with whistleblowing dissuade most workers who witness unsafe conditions from speaking up. Despite this, OSHA, the enforcement arm of the U.S. Department of Labor, received more than 4,600 whistleblower complaints in fiscal 2021, more than double the average number of complaints made over the previous five years. More than half were related to COVID-19. 

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EPA 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 that is currently imported, processed, or distributed in the U.S. However, as a result of the November 2019 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Safer Chemicals Healthy Families v. EPA, EPA plans to evaluate legacy uses and associated disposals, other types of asbestos fibers in addition to chrysotile, and conditions of use of asbestos in talc and talc-containing products in a supplemental effort that is the focus of part 2 of the risk evaluation for asbestos. 

For the full text, click here.

To access the Draft Risk Evaluation, click here.