All Things Chemical

This week I had the pleasure of visiting with Dr. Lesa Rice-Jackson, CPPS, Managing Principal Consultant, Rice Jackson Health Safety & Regulatory Compliance Consulting, to discuss Lesa's expertise in occupational safety and health and product stewardship issues. Dr. Jackson has a distinguished career in private practice as an employee of a large industrial chemical company, and now is President of her own consultancy. Lesa is both a much sought after service provider to B&C and some of its clients and a member of the Board of Directors of the Product Stewardship Society, which I served on for several years before stepping down as President and Chair of the Board a few years ago. Lesa is a seasoned, practical, and extremely efficient professional to whom I could listen all day, given her insights on all things occupational safety and health related. We discuss the pending amendments to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Hazard Communication Standard (HCS), key issues likely to complicate compliance, and how best to balance occupational safety and health compliance with emerging and more rigorous best practice standards.

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.

©2023 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week, we are re-releasing a podcast I recorded with my colleague, Dr. Richard E. Engler, Director of Chemistry for B&C and The Acta Group, our consulting affiliate, much earlier this year on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) development of new chemical categories to help streamline Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Section 5 new chemical review. Since January, the concept of chemical categories has attracted significant attention. Rich and I discuss in the podcast the new categories for mixed metal oxides (MMO) and cathode active materials (CAM), and another category for biofuels.

More recently, EPA has focused on regulating PFAS chemicals as a category and has sought comment on disallowing Low Volume and Low Release and Low Exposure Exemptions under TSCA Section 5. While this is an entirely different way of streamlining the review process, the proposal raises interesting questions that we address in our firm memorandum on this subject posted on our website. The podcast discussion is directly relevant to these more recent developments.

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.

©2023 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Lee Bowers, Vice President -- Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS), RPM International, Inc., and Bergeson & Campbell's own Karin Baron, Director of Hazard Communication and International Registration Strategy, to discuss the consequential changes to the classification, labeling, and packaging of substances and mixtures (CLP) system in the European Union (EU). As some of our listeners may know, in April 2023, the European Commission entered into force significant changes to the CLP regulation. The real-world impacts of these changes are now being felt in a host of commercial transactions. These challenges arise because of the lack of alignment between CLP and the Globally Harmonized System of Classification of Labeling of Chemicals (GHS), which may sound less urgent than it is. Karin and I have been beating this drum for a while now, and Lee Bowers and Karin Baron are here to discuss actual instances and real case studies that listeners may find helpful to know.

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.

©2023 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Retired Rear Admiral Melissa Bert, who served as the Judge Advocate General and Chief Counsel of the U.S. Coast Guard, the first woman to serve in this position. Admiral Bert's accomplishments are too numerous to note here, but her Wikipedia page is sure to impress. We discuss Coast Guard responsibilities, what the Chief Counsel of the Coast Guard does, some of Admiral Bert's more memorable engagements, and the Admiral's founding of the Coast Guard Women's Leadership Initiative and Leadership Diversity Advisory Council.

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.

©2023 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Shanisha Smith, Health, Safety, and Environmental (HSE) Counsel for LyondellBasell, about her role as counsel and the rewards and challenges of advising a major chemical producer on HSE legal and product stewardship issues. In our conversation, we learn about Shanisha's beginnings not far from here on Maryland's Eastern Shore to now living in Houston and counseling LyondellBasell's, one of the world's largest chemical manufacturers, global team of HSE and product stewardship professionals on an incredibly diverse range of legal and product stewardship issues. We discuss Shanisha's impressive personal background, how it prepared her for the demands of her current job, and Shanisha's approach to counseling her client on evolving legal and stewardship topics, many of which are emerging with no clear answer.

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.

©2023 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Jane Vergnes, Director of Toxicology and Vice President, Scientific Affairs, here at B&C and its consulting affiliate, The Acta Group (Acta®), about the regulation of PFAS under REACH. Many of our listeners know the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) released on February 7 its long-awaited restriction proposal for the regulation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in the European Union (EU) under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulations. The proposal is a monster -- complex, far-ranging, and very consequential. The six-month consultation period is open until late September, and regulated entities on both sides of the Atlantic are urged to read and comment on the proposal. Jane and I cover lot of territory in our discussion. We discuss the risk options ECHA considered, what it has proposed, some legal vulnerabilities with the approach ECHA has taken that commentators are discussing, and how best to prepare for the final restrictions, whenever they are issued and in whatever form.

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.

©2023 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week, Dr. Richard E. Engler, Director of Chemistry for B&C and The Acta Group (Acta®), our consulting affiliate, returned to the studio to discuss a recently filed lawsuit challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) issuance of a Consent Order under Section 5(e) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Judicial challenges to TSCA Section 5(e) orders are rare, and this one is even more unusual because the petitioner is a non-governmental organization (NGO) and the challenge was filed well beyond the statutory time period for judicial challenge, according to some. We discuss TSCA Section 5(e) orders, the process for challenging them, and some of the underlying issues at play here, including the concept of "chemical categories" under Section 5, concerns with EPA's new chemical review process, and EPA's assessment and communication of risk in the new chemicals it reviews under Section 5.

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.

©2023 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week, I sat down with the truly legendary Robert M. Sussman, of Sussman & Associates, to discuss Bob's extraordinary career engaging in all things Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), new and old. Bob was a prominent private-practice attorney and frequent senior official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before TSCA was amended in 2016. Since the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, Bob has been extraordinarily successful putting his TSCA know-how and finely honed litigation skills to effective use for a wide range of public-interest clients. During our conversation, we discuss Bob's amazing career, his litigation successes, his views on new TSCA, and his hopes for the future of chemical management.

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.

©2023 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

This week, I welcomed back to the studio Karin F. Baron, Director of Hazard Communication and International Registration Strategy at B&C and our consulting affiliate, The Acta Group. Karin and I discuss the newly enacted Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022, better known as MoCRA. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been the subject of criticism for years over what some regard as inadequate regulation of cosmetics and the facilities where they are produced. MoCRA is intended to modernize the regulation of cosmetics and imposes sweeping changes on the review and regulation of cosmetics about which our listeners need to know. In our conversation, Karin addresses the most consequential new regulatory provisions MoCRA imposes and explains when they are effective and how they will impact the manufacture and marketing of cosmetic products.

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.

©2023 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved

The train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, has inspired a lot of conversation involving a wide range of topics, including emergency response measures, rail transport of chemicals, and most pertinent to this conversation, communicating chemical risk information to the public. Several of my colleagues here at Bergeson & Campbell have worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in varying capacities and other federal agencies charged with regulating chemicals and communicating safety and risk information. We thought it would be interesting to have a conversation with these former regulators about the challenges federal and state agencies face in responding to major incidents like the train derailment in East Palestine. So this week, I sat down with Jim Aidala and Dennis Deziel, both Senior Government Affairs Advisors at B&C and its consulting affiliate, The Acta Group, and Dr. Richard Engler, Director of Chemistry at B&C and Acta, to speak about some of these issues, given their unique perspective as former government representatives. Among the issues we discuss is what happens when the call comes in reporting on a major incident, how did each plan for the unexpected, what are the key challenges in communicating risk information about chemicals to the public, and their thoughts on restoring trust in what the government reports during major incidents.

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.

©2023 Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. All Rights Reserved