This Week in Washington: Congress passes six appropriations bills including skinny health package; House Ways and Means Committee reports bill to block CMS nursing home minimum staffing.
On January 30, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS') Innovation Center announced that sickle cell disease (SCD) will be the first focus of the Cell and Gene Therapy (CGT).
PFAS Action Act of 2021 Would Amend Major Environmental
Statutes to Regulate PFAS
Senate Committee Approved Bill that Would Require Guidance on
Reducing Firefighter Exposure to PFAS
Regulatory Developments
EPA Makes Changes to New Chemicals Program Likely to Further
Complicate, Slow Reviews
EPA Takes Steps to Set PFAS Agenda
OSHA Proposed First Updates to Hazard Communication Standard
Since 2012
EPA Said Interim Rule to Amend TSCA Mercury Reporting
Requirements Was Forthcoming
Environmental Groups Seek EPA Actions on Phosphogypsum and
Process Wastewater from Phosphoric Acid Production
EPA Announced Temporary Regulatory Relief for PIP (3:1)
Prohibition, Opened Broader Review of Five TSCA PBT Risk Management
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released on December 22, 2020, final rules under Section 6(h) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for five persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) chemicals decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE); phenol, isopropylated phosphate (3:1) (PIP (3:1)); 2,4,6-tris(tert-butyl)phenol (2,4,6-TTBP); hexachlorobutadiene (HCBD); and pentachlorothiophenol (PCTP). TSCA required EPA to take expedited action on specific PBT chemicals to address risk and reduce exposures to the extent practicable. EPA identified these five PBT chemicals for expedited action, following criteria outlined in TSCA. The final rules limit or prohibit the manufacture (including import), processing, and/or distribution in commerce for the following: