Monthly Archives: September 2014

At its September 25, 2014 Priority Product Work Plan workshop in Sacramento, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control announced its expectation that its draft Priority Product Work Plan will be finalized in early 2015 and that the Work Plan's implementation will involve mandatory data call-ins, stakeholder meetings and workshops.  The outcome of that implementation process will be the identification of Priority Products, and DTSC expects to identify no more than 10 Priority Products in any given identification round. The Safer Consumer Products Regulations, finalized in October 2013, require DTSC to publish a Priority Product Work Plan and to update…

In a new draft of proposed revisions to the Proposition 65 warning regulations (Warning Regulation DISCUSSION DRAFT 092314), the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has made certain improvements to its March 7, 2014 draft proposal. (See prior GLO report on OEHHA's earlier proposal.)   However, it's unlikely that either the regulated community or Proposition 65 enforcers will be satisfied with all of the changes in OEHHA's latest approach. On the plus side, OEHHA's latest draft proposal eliminates the previously proposed requirement to use the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) health hazard pictogram in Proposition 65 warnings.  Instead, an exclamation point…

On September 16, 2014, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment published an announcement soliciting public comments on a number of potential regulatory proposals revising the Proposition 65 regulations.  Public comments are due November 17, 2014, and OEHHA plans to hold a public workshop in the near future on this topic. OEHHA's request for input is part of recent efforts to reform and update the Proposition 65 regulations and follows its pre-regulatory draft proposal, released on March 7, 2014, to revise the Proposition 65 warning regulations.  That pre-regulatory proposal has met with significant resistance from the regulated community as…

On September 12, 2014, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control released its draft Priority Products Work Plan under the Safer Consumer Products Regulations. The Work Plan identifies the product categories that DTSC will evaluate for future listing as Priority Products. DTSC has scheduled two public workshops to discuss the Work Plan: September 25 at its Sacramento headquarters, and September 29 at its Cypress, California regional office. DTSC has identified several product categories and associated potential chemicals of concern: Beauty/personal care/hygiene (skin products, personal hygiene products, hair products and cosmetics/fragrances) -- aldehydes, alkyl phenols, ethoxylates, azo dyes, coal tars, lead, lead…

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is considering the addition of 22 new chemicals to the REACH authorisation list. This is the largest list of chemicals considered for authorization since REACH became effective.  Comments are due November 30, 2014. The chemicals being considered are: Two substances obtained from coal tar: Anthracene oil; Pitch, coal tar, high temp. Seven lead substances: Orange lead (lead tetroxide); Lead monoxide (lead oxide); Tetralead trioxide sulphate; Pentalead tetraoxide sulphate; Silicic acid, lead salt; Pyrochlore, antimony lead yellow; Acetic acid, lead salt, basic. Four boron substances: Boric acid; Disodium tetraborate, anhydrous; Diboron trioxide; Tetraboron disodium heptaoxide, hydrate. Seven…