All Things Chemical

This week I sat down with Dr. Richard E. Engler, B&C's and The Acta Group's (our consulting affiliate) Director of Chemistry, and Dr. Todd J. Stedeford, B&C's Of Counsel, to discuss a range of issues regarding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) all important implementation of the Lautenberg amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Rich was a 17-year veteran of EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) before joining our team. Todd is a more recent addition to our team, and is a lawyer and a toxicologist who recently completed a 20-year career with EPA where he served most recently as Senior Science Advisor in EPA's OPPT, and in other EPA leadership positions.

Rich and Todd discuss a range of issues I know our listeners will find interesting and timely. These include EPA new chemical reviews, when is something "reasonably foreseen," and what is an "unreasonable risk," among other topics.

ALL MATERIALS IN THIS PODCAST ARE PROVIDED SOLELY FOR INFORMATIONAL AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. THE MATERIALS ARE NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE OR THE PROVISION OF LEGAL SERVICES. ALL LEGAL QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED DIRECTLY BY A LICENSED ATTORNEY PRACTICING IN THE APPLICABLE AREA OF LAW.

©2021 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week I was delighted to sit down with Dr. Michal I. Freedhoff, Assistant Administrator, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), arguably the busiest person in Washington, D.C. Dr. Freedhoff is EPA's top Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) official, and she also administers the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Dr. Freedhoff discusses OCSPP's priorities, plans for the new year, and focuses on a few key issues, including new chemical review, industrial chemical testing, EPA's PFAS Action Plan for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and how OCSPP is dealing with a workload that is not matched by existing resources.

ALL MATERIALS IN THIS PODCAST ARE PROVIDED SOLELY FOR INFORMATIONAL AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. THE MATERIALS ARE NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE OR THE PROVISION OF LEGAL SERVICES. ALL LEGAL QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED DIRECTLY BY A LICENSED ATTORNEY PRACTICING IN THE APPLICABLE AREA OF LAW.

©2021 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week I sat down with Kurt M. Landgraf, former Chairman and CEO of DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company and most recently former President of Washington College located in Chestertown, Maryland. I have known Kurt for a number of years now, and I thought a conversation focusing on Kurt's extraordinarily diverse background would be an interesting mix of pharmaceutical management issues, higher education, and Kurt's observations on preparing students for careers in environmental disciplines. Kurt's storied career makes for a fascinating conversation that I think you will enjoy.

ALL MATERIALS IN THIS PODCAST ARE PROVIDED SOLELY FOR INFORMATIONAL AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. THE MATERIALS ARE NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE OR THE PROVISION OF LEGAL SERVICES. ALL LEGAL QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED DIRECTLY BY A LICENSED ATTORNEY PRACTICING IN THE APPLICABLE AREA OF LAW.

©2021 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

David's 1999 Paper on e-commerce and the environment

This week I sat down with David Rejeski, Visiting Scholar with the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), to learn more about his engagement in the Project on the Energy and Environmental Implications of the Digital Economy. With support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, ELI, the Yale School of the Environment, and the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at UC Berkeley, the Project is shedding much-needed light on the true environmental and energy implications of the digital economy, focusing on blockchain technologies, sharing platforms, artificial intelligence, and other technologies. We also look back at David's pioneering work on the implications of nanotechnology when he was heading up the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

ALL MATERIALS IN THIS PODCAST ARE PROVIDED SOLELY FOR INFORMATIONAL AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. THE MATERIALS ARE NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE OR THE PROVISION OF LEGAL SERVICES. ALL LEGAL QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED DIRECTLY BY A LICENSED ATTORNEY PRACTICING IN THE APPLICABLE AREA OF LAW.

©2021 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

All Things Chemical will reach our 3rd anniversary on October 23rd and we want to share this celebration with you. As we look back on the last three years I wanted to bring back an older episode from the summer of 2020, "Implementing Lautenberg — A Conversation with former OPPT Director Jeffery T. Morris, Ph.D." During this episode I spoke with Jeff Morris about how the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics implemented Lautenberg back in 2016, and how TSCA can be implemented in the future to address social inequities and achieve its goals of environmental justice. I hope you enjoy it and take this opportunity to listen to some more episodes from our archives.

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This week I sat down with Dr. Jeff Morris, immediate past Director of EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), the EPA office that regulates the industrial chemical sector. Jeff directed EPA's implementation of the 2016 amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and headed the office most immediately impacted by the significant changes brought about by the Lautenberg amendments.

In our discussion, we talk about how Jeff and his OPPT colleagues managed the daunting task of implementing a new law, and how the Agency has fared since the law's enactment four years ago. We discuss Jeff's interest in environmental justice, and how TSCA might be used to address the impact of environmental harms and their disproportionate adverse impact on people of color and the poor.

We also discuss Jeff's important role in EPA's Office of Research and Development and its research program on nanomaterials and nanotechnology, and how his background prepared Jeff well for addressing TSCA's application to emerging chemical technologies.

We conclude by learning more about what Jeff is up to now in his new role as a principal in Jeff Morris Solutions, LLC. I really enjoyed my conversation with Jeff. He and I have known each other for many years, and I have long admired Jeff's integrity, his commitment to public service, and his epic understanding of chemical policy, science, and regulation.

ALL MATERIALS IN THIS PODCAST ARE PROVIDED SOLELY FOR INFORMATIONAL AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. THE MATERIALS ARE NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE OR THE PROVISION OF LEGAL SERVICES. ALL LEGAL QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED DIRECTLY BY A LICENSED ATTORNEY PRACTICING IN THE APPLICABLE AREA OF LAW.

©2021 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week I sat down with my new colleague, Dennis R. Deziel, B&C’s and our consulting affiliate’s, The Acta Group, Senior Government Affairs Advisor, to discuss Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform. Dennis served as Director of Federal Government Affairs for the Dow Chemical Company when the TSCA amendments were considered and eventually enacted by Congress in 2016. After leaving Dow, Dennis served as EPA Region 1 Administrator (New England). I thought it would be interesting to speak with Dennis and seek his views on TSCA reform, as it was happening when he was a senior executive for one of the world’s largest chemical companies, and then as a Senate-confirmed political appointee, after TSCA reform was enacted and he was part of the team implementing the new law.

ALL MATERIALS IN THIS PODCAST ARE PROVIDED SOLELY FOR INFORMATIONAL  AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. THE MATERIALS ARE NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE OR THE PROVISION OF LEGAL SERVICES. ALL LEGAL QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED DIRECTLY BY A LICENSED ATTORNEY PRACTICING IN THE APPLICABLE AREA OF LAW.

©2021 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.  All Rights Reserved

This week I sat down with Dr. Richard E. Engler, B&C’s and The Acta Group’s (our consulting affiliate) Director of Chemistry, to discuss the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) continuing struggle to regulate certain persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals, especially those found in finished products, what EPA refers to as “articles.” The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) has always applied to the products, or articles, that contain chemical substances of interest to EPA under TSCA. While EPA previously used that authority somewhat sparingly, the 2016 Amendments to TSCA have jump-started a new wave of regulations that expressly apply to articles. EPA is required under TSCA to regulate certain PBTs, and EPA issued a final rule earlier this year that inspired chaos in the business community, especially in the electronics sector and its complicated supply chain. Rich and I discuss these PBT rules and help explain what may well be the new normal with regard to the regulation of finished products under TSCA.

ALL MATERIALS IN THIS PODCAST ARE PROVIDED SOLELY FOR INFORMATIONAL  AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. THE MATERIALS ARE NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE OR THE PROVISION OF LEGAL SERVICES. ALL LEGAL QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED DIRECTLY BY A LICENSED ATTORNEY PRACTICING IN THE APPLICABLE AREA OF LAW.

©2021 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.  All Rights Reserved

This week, I sat down with Daniel Rosenberg, Director, Federal Toxics Policy, Healthy People & Thriving Communities Program, at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Daniel’s distinguished legal career has placed him at the forefront of the evolving law and policy of domestic chemical regulation. Daniel and I discuss new Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) implementation of the 2016 amendments to TSCA under Lautenberg, several recent regulatory initiatives involving persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and much more. An engaging and formidable advocate, Daniel’s views are always forcefully spoken and clearly articulated.

ALL MATERIALS IN THIS PODCAST ARE PROVIDED SOLELY FOR INFORMATIONAL  AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. THE MATERIALS ARE NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE OR THE PROVISION OF LEGAL SERVICES. ALL LEGAL QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED DIRECTLY BY A LICENSED ATTORNEY PRACTICING IN THE APPLICABLE AREA OF LAW.

©2021 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.  All Rights Reserved

This week I sat down with Karin F. Baron, Senior Regulatory Consultant at B&C and our consulting affiliate, The Acta Group. Karin works extensively with the European Union’s (EU) Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals, better known as REACH, which is the EU counterpart to the U.S. Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). We discuss REACH Article 41 “compliance checks,” an innocuous-sounding component of REACH that has the potential to cause considerable business anxiety, delay, and expense if a company’s REACH dossier is found to be deficient as a result of a compliance check. Karin walks us through what these checks are for, what could happen if you are caught up in one, and how best to respond if your dossier becomes ensnared in a compliance check.

ALL MATERIALS IN THIS PODCAST ARE PROVIDED SOLELY FOR INFORMATIONAL  AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. THE MATERIALS ARE NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE OR THE PROVISION OF LEGAL SERVICES. ALL LEGAL QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED DIRECTLY BY A LICENSED ATTORNEY PRACTICING IN THE APPLICABLE AREA OF LAW.

©2021 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.  All Rights Reserved

This week I sat down with Carla N. Hutton, Regulatory Analyst at B&C. Carla is also co-editor of the Nano Blog that B&C has prepared for years. Carla is uniquely well suited to discuss a report the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently issued on developing occupational exposure limits or “bands” for engineered nanomaterials. There are thousands of chemicals in use in the workplace, but far fewer government-issued, authoritative, peer-reviewed occupational exposure limits for workplace chemicals. The recent NIOSH report discusses an approach to evaluate scientific information to derive occupational exposure limits or bands for engineered nanomaterials.

ALL MATERIALS IN THIS PODCAST ARE PROVIDED SOLELY FOR INFORMATIONAL  AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. THE MATERIALS ARE NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE OR THE PROVISION OF LEGAL SERVICES. ALL LEGAL QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED DIRECTLY BY A LICENSED ATTORNEY PRACTICING IN THE APPLICABLE AREA OF LAW.

©2021 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.  All Rights Reserved