Toxics

EPA science advisors say the agency’s draft Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) assessment of methylene chloride (MC), the ubiquitous solvent, provides an “incomplete picture of risks,” warning that without a broader review that considers risks from uses the agency declined to evaluate, the assessment could lead to harmful releases.

As EPA and Congress weigh efforts to ban asbestos, plaintiffs in asbestos tort suits are casting a wide net to capture companies not directly involved in making the substance, but a product liability defense attorney says states are seeking to limit those efforts including Iowa’s bid to prevent “an epidemic” of “over-naming” defendants.

A key House Democrat is questioning EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler over the regulatory impact of the administration’s decision to drop as the basis for its evaluation of trichloroethylene (TCE) studies showing in utero exposure can cause cardiac birth defects, asking whether this may allow the agency to avoid banning the chemical.

Environmentalists are urging EPA to re-do “at least three” previously released draft chemical evaluations under the reformed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), arguing that an appellate court backed their arguments that the agency is required under its regulations to consider all of the chemicals’ uses, not just those that the agency chooses to consider.