Toxics

The ongoing effort to reorganize EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) is continuing on Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s requested schedule starting in fiscal year 2020, according to information released at a recent internal meeting, even as plans to reorganize the toxics office have stalled due to pressing statutory deadlines.

EPA’s plan to drop a three-fold safety factor (3X) intended to protect children from harmful exposures to widely used pyrethrin and pyrethroid insecticides based on new industry models is raising concerns from environmentalists that the industry is increasingly turning to such models to win scaled back regulatory requirements from the agency.

As lawmakers gear up to resolve differences in their pending defense bills to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), water utility groups are, for the first time, detailing joint principles, including asking for a liability exemption for PFAS-containing residuals if the bill requires EPA to designate the chemicals as “hazardous substances” under the Superfund law.

EPA is issuing guidance to companies that sell products containing the herbicide glyphosate to avoid and remove any labeling that says glyphosate causes cancer, in direct conflict with California Proposition 65 warning requirements for the chemical compound that have been temporarily set aside by a federal district court.