Toxic Chemicals

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) on April 14 introduced once again a bill intended to overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Lautenberg, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics, and Environmental Health, introduced a similar bill (S.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is soliciting comments on the development of the 2012 Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG2012), particularly from those who have experience using the 2008 Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG).

The ERG is for use by emergency services personnel to provide guidance for initial response to hazardous materials incidents. The ERG2012 will supersede the ERG2008. The development of the ERG2012 is a joint effort involving the transportation agencies of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

EPA found in 1985 that methylene chloride (MC) is a probable human carcinogen and poses a long-term danger to human health. OSHA published its final MC Standard (29 CFR 1910.1052) on January 10, 1997, reducing the permissible exposure limit from an 8-hour-time-eighted-average (TWA) of 500 parts per million (ppm) to 25 ppm.  

Limited research on environmental influences on cancer; conflicting or inadequate exposure measurement, assessment, and classification; and ineffective regulation of environmental chemical and other hazardous exposures are key issues for reducing environmental cancer risk, according to the report from the Presidents Cancer Panel, Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now published May 6, 2010. 

The United Auto Workers Union (UAW) revived a petition first made to the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration in October of 1993, calling last week for a immediate action to promulgate a comprehensive standard for occupational exposure to metal-working fluids (MWF).  The new effort is based on what the UAW says is new scientific evidence for respiratory disease and cancer allegedly caused by exposure to metalworking fluids under prevailing conditions, as well as new knowledge regarding microbial growth and exposure control measures.

U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, D-NJ, has announced legislation designed to overhaul the “Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976” (TSCA). Lautenberg, who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health, introduced on April 15th  the “Safe Chemicals Act of 2010” (S.3209), a bill that he says would place the burden on industry to prove that chemicals are safe in order to stay in the market and require the safety testing of all industrial chemicals. 

The Society for Chemical Hazard Communication (SCHC) is celebrating 30 years of delivering cost-effective, high quality continuing education on a wide range of topics of importance to professionals managing all aspects of hazard communication programs.