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03 Oct
Finally, FTC has issued it’s updated guidelines for what appropriate environmental marketing claims can be made for products. A very nice summary is here. Guidance.
In concert with comments I submitted against general environmental claims, FTC says:
Marketers should not make broad, unqualified general environmental benefit claims like ‘green’ or ‘eco-friendly.’ Broad claims are difficult to substantiate, if not impossible.
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18 Sep
Updated TSCA e-CFR (electronic Code of Federal Regulations) links can be found on EHS Strategies, Inc.’s webpage TSCA Quick Links. The Government Printing Office seems determined to move around the urls for TSCA.
Even EPA can’t keep up with the changes on their websites! EPA’s page on section 8(d) health and safety studies reporting links 40 CFR 716 to
PART 407—CANNED AND PRESERVED FRUITS AND VEGETABLES PROCESSING POINT SOURCE CATEGORY
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17 Sep
ECOS – Environmental Council of the States (an organization of state environmental agency leaders) adopted a definition of “product stewardship” as:
“…the act of minimizing health, safety, environmental, and social impacts, and maximizing economic benefits of a product and its packaging throughout all lifecycle stages. The producer of the product has the greatest ability to minimize adverse impacts, but other stakeholders, such as suppliers, retailers, and consumers, also play a role. Stewardship can be either voluntary or required by law”
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EPA is presenting two webinars on the use of the TSCA electronic tools for section 8(a) (PAIR), 8(d) and 8(e)/FYI proposed reporting:
Rescheduled to September 18, 2012, from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Join a walk through on the CDX registration process and the 8(a) and For-Your-Information [not- 8(e) submissions] reporting tools. Time will be allotted for questions related to the reporting tool. Questions related to specific reporting requirements will not be covered during this webinar. Access the webinar.
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Whew! Make that 54 more chemicals ECHA is looking to add to the Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) here. See if your favorite is on the list and comment if you want by October 18.
Phthalates, nonylphenols, a bunch of lead compounds, propylene oxide, TDA and more….
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22 Aug
For those of you who like to get ahead of official listings under REACH, ECHA has a posting of “intentions” to list new SVHC Candidates, proposed restrictions and classification and labeling harmonization proposals: http://echa.europa.eu/web/guest/addressing-chemicals-of-concern/registry-of-intentions
Also be aware that there’s also a push to really up the number of SVHC by the end of the year (to 136 from the current 84).
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The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics, and Environmental Health voice voted (10 to 8) to send the latest version of the Senate Bill 847, Lautenberg’s “Safe Chemicals Act” for floor vote. Republicans are not happy and feel they’ve been locked out, but haven’t offered counter-language so the Dems are blowing them off. Interestingly, Jim Jones, the EPA AA on TSCA, declined to state a position on the bill. The likelihood of anything coming out of this Congress is slim to none.
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23 Jul
EPA press release:
The reporting deadline for the 2006 IUR rule ended in March of 2007. EPA’s enforcement efforts have led to 43 civil enforcement actions and approximately $2.3 million dollars in civil penalties against companies that failed to report required chemical data information. The reporting deadline for the 2012 submission period of the Chemical Data Reporting Rule is August 13, 2012.
The three most recent cases are against Chemtura Corporation, Bethlehem Apparatus Company, and Haldor Topsoe, Inc., and resulted in penalties totaling $362,113. -
Canada periodically puts out mandatory survey on batches of chemicals as it works through its prioritization process. For example in June there were 8 MDA/MDI chemicals of interest. It’s a pretty comprehensive set of information demanded of manufacturers, importers and processors: volumes, uses available toxicity information and a list of the top 20 customers. With the possible exception of getting customer lists, such information can be obtained under TSCA section 8 – basically CDR + 8(d) – applied to manufacturers, importers and processors.
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18 Jul
ECHA’s Registered Substances Database contains 7,530 unique substances with information from over 30,000 dossiers.
A little under 3,000 chemicals have been identified as “intended” to be registered with the next deadline of May 31, 2013, for chemicals in the 100 – 1000 metric tonnes range.