All Things Chemical

This week, I was pleased to welcome back to the studio Jim Aidala, Senior Government Affairs Consultant at B&C and its consulting affiliate, The Acta Group (Acta®), to discuss his take on what to expect from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Congress on pesticide matters in the new year. As an astute student of politics and a keen observer of EPA chemical policies and personalities, hearing Jim's observations is always informative. As many of you know, Jim is a former Assistant Administrator of what is now the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, and lifelong student of chemical governance, particularly pesticides. We discuss EPA administrative issues, the legislative forecast, the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative, and other topics of interest to our listeners.

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.

©2026 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Rachel Harris, Technical Project Manager, Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI), Argonne National Laboratory, and our own Dr. Richard Engler, to discuss Argonne National Laboratory's Chain Reaction Innovations entrepreneurship. We here at B&C truly appreciate the value and importance of chemical innovation, so when we learned of Argonne National Laboratory's Chain Reaction Innovations program (CRI program), we wanted to share information about it with our listeners. Rachel Harris is a Technical Project Manager and speaks with Rich Engler and me about the CRI program, more about Argonne National Laboratory, the technologies CRI supports, and how interested entrepreneurs can learn more about becoming part of the next CRI cohort.

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.

©2026 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Adelina Voutchkova, Director of Sustainable Development at the American Chemical Society (ACS), and my colleague Dr. Richard Engler, B&C's Director of Chemistry, to discuss ACS' much-coveted Green Chemistry Challenge Awards and ACS' Green Chemistry Institute (GCI). Institutionally, GCI has grown as the imperative for greener and more sustainable chemicals has increased. So also have the stature of the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards and the opportunities to compete for them. We discuss GCI's mission and some new opportunities for competing for the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards.

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.

©2025 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Ryan N. Schmit, Of Counsel with B&C, and Senior Regulatory Consultant with The Acta Group (Acta®). Ryan joined us a few weeks ago and we wanted to show off our newest Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) superstar. We discuss Ryan's illustrious career with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the past 15 years. As you will hear, Ryan has been at the forefront of TSCA policy development, Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (Lautenberg) legislative developments and Agency implementation, new chemical determinations under TSCA, and the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention's (OCSPP) evolving approach to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) strategy, among many other responsibilities.

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.

©2025 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Greg Gartland, Chief Executive Officer of 3E. We discuss 3E's business offerings, how it defines its place in the very competitive world of chemical information management, the role artificial intelligence has in this space, and trends Greg sees driving growth in chemicals, product stewardship, and sustainability.

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.

©2025 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

A few months ago, I recorded a podcast with my colleagues, Carla N. Hutton, Senior Regulatory Analyst for B&C, and Dr. Richard E. Engler, Director of Chemistry for B&C and The Acta Group (Acta®), our consulting affiliate, on the ever-expanding and complicated scope of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) regulation in the United States. We convened a webinar on this topic in mid-May that attracted a record-breaking 1000+ registrants, suggesting to us that PFAS continues to be a topic of enormous interest. As this topic is every bit as important and relevant today as it was in May, we are rebroadcasting our podcast.

In our discussion, Carla, Rich, and I address the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reporting obligation and the diverse constellation of state-specific reporting and product restrictions that are mushrooming around the country. Keeping up with these very diverse restrictions is important and challenging to track and with which to comply. Our hope is our discussion will focus our listeners on this important, sprawling topic and offer some tips to help manage it.

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.

©2025 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week, I sat down with my colleague, L. Claire Hansen, a Legal Intern here at B&C and Regulatory Analyst for The Acta Group (Acta®), B&C's consulting affiliate, to discuss the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). With its fast-approaching December 31, 2025, effective date, U.S. product exporters to the European Market whose goods contain seven commodities -- cocoa, coffee, cattle, palm oil, soy, wood, and rubber, and those products made from them listed in Annex 1 -- need to be keenly aware of this regulation and prepare to comply with it.

I discuss with Claire the basic requirements of the regulation, who is in scope, the costs of non-compliance, and how best to prepare for the effective date.

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.

©2025 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

On June 25, 2025, B&C, along with the Environmental Law Institute and the George Washington University Milken Institute of Public Health, sponsored the all-day virtual conference, TSCA Reform -- Nine Years Later. The conference was hugely successful and almost 1,000 people registered for it. The quality of the discussion, the caliber of the participants, and the timeliness of the content motivated us to repurpose the substantive sessions to enable our podcast audience to listen to the sessions in this venue. Our topic in this podcast is the Toxic Substances Control Act's (TSCA) Plastics Production, Use, and Recycling: Key TSCA Considerations. The includes an overview of the plastic waste crises, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regulation of plastic chemicals under TSCA, EPA's approach to the regulation of plastic waste as a chemical feedstock, and much more.

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.

©2025 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

On June 25, 2025, B&C, along with the Environmental Law Institute and the George Washington University Milken Institute of Public Health, sponsored the all-day virtual conference, TSCA Reform -- Nine Years Later. The conference was hugely successful and almost 1,000 people registered for it. The quality of the discussion, the caliber of the participants, and the timeliness of the content motivated us to repurpose the substantive sessions to enable our podcast audience to listen to the sessions in this venue. Our topic in this podcast is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new chemicals review process under the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (Lautenberg). As many listeners know, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) New Chemicals Program was significantly revised by the 2016 TSCA amendments, and what the law requires has been vigorously debated and remains unclear. This spirited panel discussion addresses the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics' (OPPT) new approaches to assess chemical risks to accelerate the process, Section 5(e) orders, recent trends with EPA's review of new chemical substances, and much, much more.

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.

©2025 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

On June 25, 2025, B&C, along with the Environmental Law Institute and the George Washington University Milken Institute of Public Health, sponsored the all-day virtual conference, TSCA Reform -- Nine Years Later. The conference was hugely successful and almost 1,000 people registered for it. The quality of the discussion, the caliber of the participants, and the timeliness of the content motivated us to repurpose the substantive sessions to enable our podcast audience to listen to the sessions in this venue. The topic of this podcast is the panel discussion on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) risk evaluation process under the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (Lautenberg). The panel discussed various aspects of EPA's risk evaluation of chemical substances under Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Section 6. The panel experts touch upon crucially important issues, including EPA's reconsideration of the risk framework rule and the legal challenge to it, EPA's pivot away from the whole chemical approach, the incorporation of cumulative risk assessment (CRA) approaches, and much, much more.

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.

©2025 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved