Expanding the list of chemicals to bring more facilities under federal oversight has become a priority for environmentalists, explained Maya Nye, the federal policy director at Coming Clean, an environmental health nonprofit focused on chemical industry oversight. Being subject to Risk Management Program requirements, Nye said, “would have required [BioLab] to think about, ‘What is the emergency response plan? What may lead to a chemical disaster?’” Environmentalists fought hard to strengthen the EPA’s Risk Management Program to account for the impacts of extreme weather on chemical accidents. Thanks to the regulations finalized this year, facilities covered by the program will be required to consider, and map out, the potential hazards posed by climate change. But BioLab’s facilities, which fall outside of the program, will not.

NEW FACTSHEET In spring 2024, after a multi-year collective advocacy effort, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the “Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention” rule which updated the Risk Management Program (RMP) rule “to further protect vulnerable communities from chemical accidents, especially those living near facilities in industry sectors with high accident rates.” You can read our high-level summary takeaways here.

NEW FACTSHEET Environmental health and farmworker advocacy organizations are urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to adhere to proven science when assessing the safety of chemicals regulated under its statutory authority, and warn against the misuse of New Approach Methods (NAMs) to designate pesticides and other harmful chemicals as safe. A new fact sheet explains that NAMs -  which are mostly unproven and include biochemical, molecular, and cell-based assays and computational models widely promoted by the chemical industry as an alternative to rodent tests - “frequently understate or incorrectly evaluate hazard and risk with potentially harmful consequences for workers, families, wildlife and ecosystems.”"We are alarmed that EPA is relying on these new, unproven tests to justify reducing protection from pesticide exposure. Farmworkers and their children will bear the brunt of this reckless decision." stated Anne Katten of California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, who coordinates Coming Clean’s collaborative team on Farmworker Health and Justice. Read the factsheet in English and Spanish.

A challenge to a federal assessment of the cancer risk for a chemical produced in Louisiana used to manufacture goods ranging from antifreeze to detergents has been rejected by a U.S. court of appeals. The challenge of the Environmental Protection Agency cancer risk assessment for ethylene oxide by a Texas petrochemical manufacturer, the American Chemistry Council and the Louisiana Chemical Association was rejected on Tuesday by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. It ruled that EPA correctly rejected an alternative study by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that found less cancer risk. Among the environmental groups that intervened in the legal challenge on behalf of EPA are the New Orleans-based Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Louisiana Environmental Action Network, and RISE St. James, as well as national groups the Environmental Integrity Project, Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform, Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists.