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US EPA to keep running despite government shutdown
Dec 24, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Lisa Martine Jenkins
The US government has partially shut down until Congress and President Trump can agree on a fiscal year 2019 budget. However, due to its carryover funds, the EPA will remain open for the week of 24 December. -
Details on Perfluorinated Chemicals’ Health Study Expected Next Year
Dec 24, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The public and researchers can expect details over the next year about the the first national study of how perfluorinated chemicals could affect people’s health. -
Should Santa Wear a Flame Retardant Suit?
Dec 24, 2018 | Engineering.com
By Meghan Brown
Having a roaring fire in the fireplace is a beloved holiday tradition--with everything from a giant Yule log to the fireplace TV channel providing people with that warm glow. -
EPA to Help States Estimate International Air Pollution
Dec 24, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Amena H. Saiyid
States finally have EPA help with how to factor international sources of air pollution into their plans to reduce haze over national parks and wilderness areas.
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US EPA to keep running despite government shutdown
Dec 24, 2018 | Chemical Watch
By Lisa Martine Jenkins
The US government has partially shut down until Congress and President Trump can agree on a fiscal year 2019 budget. However, due to its carryover funds, the EPA will remain open for the week of 24 December.
The EPA's acting administrator Andrew Wheeler indicated as much in a 20 December message, but said that they will have to reevaluate if the shutdown is still in place on 28 December. If the EPA runs out of money at that point, it is likely that most agency activity — including activity related to the implementation of TSCA— will be put on hold.EPA funding
The shutdown is the result of an impasse. Mr Trump has demanded that funding for a border wall is included in the budget - at a cost of approximately $5bn - and Democrats in the Senate have refused. Though Republicans retain a majority in the Senate, they would need a supermajority (60 votes) to pass the legislation without Democrats onboard. Mr Trump also refused to sign a continuing resolution, which would have been a way of kicking the decision down the road until February.
With no compromise forthcoming, the government shut down at midnight on 21 December. It is possible that it will last until 3 January, when a new session of Congress will begin — this time with a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, making the border wall even more unlikely.
During a shutdown, all non-essential functions are stopped entirely. This means that employees are furloughed — sent home without pay — and those that are considered ‘essential’, such as law enforcement officers, homeland security employees, or firefighters, work without pay. Most functions in the EPA are considered non-essential.
The EPA has prepared a contingency plan outlining how it will proceed during a shutdown, which indicates that only 11 employees in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention are excepted from the shutdown. The office has 981 exempted staff members, who are only allowed to continue working if the remnants of the current budget carry over. In this case, it was determined that "the EPA has sufficient carryover funds to operate for a limited period of time."TSCA
If the EPA does shut down after 28 December, there are several TSCA-related activities that could be impacted — these are nonessential but time-sensitive. These include:the final versions of ten risk evaluations to be issued under the amended TSCA;the list of 20 high- and low-priority chemicals;pre-manufacturing notices (PMNs) and new chemical review more broadly;and the ‘active inventory’ of substances.
While none of these have explicit deadlines in the near future, many have soft deadlines for drafts or other action in January 2019, assuming the EPA plans to stick to the its statutory deadlines later in the year.
For instance, the EPA has a three-year statutory deadline for finalising the first ten risk evaluations for existing chemicals under TSCA, which ends December 2019. However, it may seek a single six-month extension. The first of these, for pigment violet 29, has received a preliminary determination of no unreasonable risk.
https://chemicalwatch.com/72974/us-epa-to-keep-running-despite-government-shutdown
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Details on Perfluorinated Chemicals’ Health Study Expected Next Year
Dec 24, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The public and researchers can expect details over the next year about the the first national study of how perfluorinated chemicals could affect people’s health.
The details will be released “sometime in 2019,” the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry told Bloomberg Environment in a Dec. 21 email.
Meanwhile, 21 senators are pushing the agency to include firefighters in its planned study.
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) spearheaded a Dec. 13 letter with that request signed by Democrats, Republicans, and Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The letter follows the Senate and House agreement to provide $20 million for a national health study of the chemicals through budget bills both the House and Senate approved earlier this year for fiscal years 2018 and 2019.
Yet firefighters will not be part of that study, which will focus on communities that have been exposed to a group of more than 3,000 chemicals, called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which have been detected in drinking water sources serving more than 6 million Americans.
The toxic substances agency, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, said it will reply to the senators.
Multisite AssessmentsThe agency is developing the criteria it will use to select communities for the multisite health study, it said.
“It is our intention to look at all available data, the exposure assessments, and any other PFAS biomonitoring data available from other groups when selecting locations for the multisite study,” it said.
Such factors helped spur the agency to choose the Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth, N.H., as a pilot test site to evaluate survey designs, participant outreach efforts, and tools it would use at future sites.
Locations for the multisite health study will be selected through a competitive grant process. The approach taken to select sites will be shared publicly once the selections have been made, the agency said.
PFAS ChemicalsConcerns about PFAS are spurred by information scientists have generated on just two specific chemicals in that large group: perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Those studies show that people exposed to these substances have higher cholesterol, increasing their risk of heart disease. They also show an increased risk of cancer, thyroid problems, and a weakened immune system, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
PFAS chemicals have been used for decades because they make other chemicals and products grease-, heat-, and water-resistant.
Exposure to PFAS results from decades of their use in products ranging from firefighting foams to medical, electronics, and oil and gas drilling equipment, although some research also shows that people can be exposed to PFAS through cosmetics, food packaging, and other sources.
Manufacturers including 3M Co., the Chemours Co., DuPont Co. that have produced PFOS and PFOA and still produce newer PFAS chemicals will be interested in the national study’s results.
A number of lawsuits have been filed by local or state governments seeking clean up costs and by people alleging that PFAS exposures have harmed their health.
Manufacturers such as Wolverine World Wide Inc., which used PFAS to waterproof footwear, also have been targeted.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/epa-to-help-states-estimate-international-air-pollution
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Should Santa Wear a Flame Retardant Suit?
Dec 24, 2018 | Engineering.com
By Meghan Brown
Having a roaring fire in the fireplace is a beloved holiday tradition--with everything from a giant Yule log to the fireplace TV channel providing people with that warm glow. Those who have a real fire burning away on Christmas Eve may wonder: How can Santa get down the chimney when the fireplace is in use?
A flame-retardant suit could save Santa from a seriously un-jolly circumstance. But many believe these molecules belong on the naughty list due to the potential risks they pose to human health. If you're curious whether a flame-retardant Santa suit would be worthwhile--and worth the trade-off of any possible downsides--check out the video to see the American Chemical Society's breakdown of the chemistry involved.
https://www.engineering.com/DesignerEdge/DesignerEdgeArticles/ArticleID/18177/Should-Santa-Wear-a-Flame-Retardant-Suit.aspx
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EPA to Help States Estimate International Air Pollution
Dec 24, 2018 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Amena H. Saiyid
States finally have EPA help with how to factor international sources of air pollution into their plans to reduce haze over national parks and wilderness areas.
The Environmental Protection Agency issued guidelines Dec. 21 that will allow states to adjust methods for determining haze conditions and accounting for total international impacts. The guidelines also spell out approaches for states to factor in pollution caused by wildfires, volcanoes, and other natural events.
These guidelines supplement the revisions the agency made in January 2017 to the Clean Air Act regional haze rule, which is designed to reduce power plant emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter that can cause light to scatter and make the sky hazy. These pollutants also are associated with poor air quality and contribute to public health problems such as respiratory illness.
The 2017 revisions to the regional haze rule clarified that air agencies wouldn’t be accountable for reducing pollution that is emitted by industrial sources from Mexico, Canada, or otherwise beyond state borders. EPA had said it would provide modeled estimates for international human-caused sources of pollution, such as power plants or refineries.
The underlying rule, irrespective of the revisions, still requires states to write state implementation plans, which are due in July 2021.
These plans will require sources of pollution such as power plants and factories using fossil fuels to control those emissions to improve vistas in 156 national parks and wilderness areas, including the Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains, and Shenandoah National Park.
Acting EPA Chief Andrew Wheeler in late September issued a visibility roadmap in which he promised to provide states with the guidance and data available to write and act on the plans.
https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/epa-to-help-states-estimate-international-air-pollution
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