Toxics

House Democrats appear likely to step up their oversight of EPA’s implementation of the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) after the agency sidestepped their calls to ban workplace uses of methylene chloride in paint strippers, an action they said would not protect workers.

Facing widespread criticism that its first-time ban on consumer uses of paint strippers containing methylene chloride does not protect workers, the agency's top toxics official is leaving the door open to taking future action to limit workplace risks under the revised toxics law though she stopped short of pledging to ban the chemical's commercial uses that many critics are seeking.

A team of scientists in an article accepted for publication in the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology is backing the American Water Works Association’s (AWWA) call for EPA to rely on a 2005 risk assessment in crafting a perchlorate drinking water standard that could spur a weaker limit than use of an alternative approach.

EPA has begun to sample for potential contamination of two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at Superfund sites even before it lists the chemicals as “hazardous substances,” suggesting it could move quickly to require cleanup at sites where the agency had previously committed not to and where prior mandates are addressed.