Toxics

As EPA prepares to issue a trio of framework rules to implement the new Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), observers say the bipartisan law still faces a host of legal, budgetary, political, technological and other challenges that will test its durability and future success.

EPA is weighing a potential rule that would add new pesticide labeling requirements to stem increasing herbicide resistance, as part of a broad response to a critical report from the agency's Inspector General (IG) that found the pesticides office lacks sufficient controls for addressing risks posed by resistant weeds.

Critics of EPA's proposed ban on certain uses of trichlorothylene (TCE) are faulting the Obama administration's conclusion that TCE causes human cancers and are calling on the Trump administration to assess new data from worker studies released since EPA's 2011 Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) review of the chemical.

EPA is preparing a guidance document for states listing the security and policy requirements necessary to protect confidential business information (CBI), requirements that states will have to meet to be able to receive information about chemicals from EPA as outlined in changes enacted in the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) last summer.