Popular Weedkiller a carcinogen: WHO

The herbicide glyphosate is a "probable
carcinogen," cancer research agency says.

The active ingredient in Roundup, one of the world's most popular weed killers -- and the most commonly used one in the United States -- has been declared a "probable carcinogen" by the World Health Organization.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the WHO, recently released the results of its review of five herbicides and pesticides.

The French-based agency ranks cancer-causing agents on four levels: known carcinogens, probably or possible carcinogens, not classifiable and probably not carcinogenic.

The herbicide glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, was classified by IARC as "probably carcinogenic to humans."

But the classification is not binding, said the IARC.

"It remains the responsibility of individual governments and other international organizations to recommend regulations, legislation or public health intervention," the agency said in a statement.

According to the Associated Press, the United States Environmental Protection Agency said it would consider the IARC's evaluation.

The IARC did clarify that the new ruling is mostly directed at the industrial use of the herbicide, and that use by home gardeners does not fall under the same classification.

Glyphosate is employed in more than 750 herbicide products and has been detected in the air, during spraying and in foods, reports the IARC.

The determination is sure to alarm the agro-chemical industry and particularly Monsanto, the agribusiness giant that is the leading producer of glyphosate.

Worldwide annual sales of the chemical are estimated at $6 billion.

The company put out its own statement: "All labeled uses of glyphosate are safe for human health," said Monsanto's Phil Miller, global head of regulatory and government affairs.

“We don’t know how IARC could reach a conclusion that is such a dramatic departure from the conclusion reached by all regulatory agencies around the globe,” said Miller.

Monsanto requested an urgent meeting with the World Health Organization to clarify the scientific basis of the ruling.

A summary of the agency's findings was published in the British journal Lancet Oncology.

Source: International Business Times

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Chemical plant inundated with complaints from nearby residents

Residents close to a chemical plant
have been getting sick, they say.

PASCAGOULA – An Environmental Protection Agency inspector, during a tour of Mississippi Phosphates in 2009, walked through a puddle so acidic it ate leather off the inspector’s steel-toed boots.

The inspector’s vivid account is one of dozens from an inspection that year that yielded a biting administrative order from the EPA to the company, using the words “imminent and substantial” danger when referring to the possible impact on human health or the environment.

The federal agency ordered the company to fix uncontrolled leaks and spills of sulfuric acid on its grounds, and stop untreated discharges to the adjacent bayou and uncontrolled spills and leaks of phosphoric acid to unlined ditches.

The agency found more issues in 2011, and in 2012, reinforced its orders to clean up.

Then last year, the state Department of Environmental Quality shut down two plants at the fertilizer manufacturer because they were creating an acid mist that caused neighboring industry to evacuate workers.

All the while, a neighborhood less than a mile away says it was unaware of the reports. Cherokee Forest has 132 homes along heavily industrialized Bayou Casotte in east Pascagoula, where several industries contribute heavily to air emissions.

Residents have been complaining in recent years about thick dust, strong acrid smells and health problems.

They’ve told regulators what’s in the air and what’s on the ground at neighboring industry is coming into their yards, onto their cars, onto their skin and into their lungs.

The company says it has fixed its problems from the 2009 inspection.

“EPA conducted a final compliance inspection in October 2010 and confirmed that MPC had implemented all the corrective action items addressed in the 2009 order,” it said in a statement to the Sun Herald.

Over the last five years, MPC has continued to invest in its operation and environmental programs and work with the EPA and Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to ensure future environmental compliance at the facility.”

So what’s the significance of the EPA inspector’s boot?

Howard Page, a community coordinator with the STEPS Coalition in Biloxi, who helped organize the neighborhood into a group, said although Mississippi Phosphates has made improvements, he believes the story of the acid puddle is relevant today.

“It shows how very real the threat is,” Page said. “It’s not the most recent event; things the company has been cited for and had to correct. But it captures the issue — how strong that acid is.

“If it does that to a boot, just imagine what it does when you’re breathing it as a mist. It’s a concrete example of what people are facing, not just odors or a possible concern.”

Mississippi Phosphates said it pledged more than $2.5 million to cleanup what the EPA found in 2009, has made other improvements and more recently has offered air monitors in the neighborhood to detect sulfuric acid.

But Page said he believes the chronic history of problems, “not one or two times, but a long series of incidents” presents a health threat to workers and nearby residents.

He said there’s a need to control the risk to workers and neighbors.

“The process they operate there that involves acid is a potentially dangerous process if it’s not managed and overseen well,” he said.

Page said one issue for the neighborhood has been substantiating their complaints. And though other industries are putting dust and chemicals in the air, remarks of trained EPA inspectors at Mississippi Phosphates in the 2009 report sound familiar to residents:

• “the sampling team tasted a metallic flavor in the air that permeated to the back of the throat. Sampling team members complained of burning, stinging and itchy skin and eyes. The metallic taste remained with EPA personnel for at least two days after leaving the site.”
• “The ongoing inhalation of sulfuric acid mist may pose substantial harm to personnel at and visitors to the facility.”
• “The effects of discharges . extend far beyond the initial discharge zone, reaching to the other side of Bayou Casotte, and far into the commercial turning basin (of the bayou).”
• “Low pH liquids facilitate the mobilization of metals such as arsenic, cadmium and chromium. Metals are readily leached from the soils and or sediment into groundwater upon contact with a solution of pH less than 3.5.” The puddle one inspector stepped in had a pH of less than 2 (the company’s permit allows a range of 6 to 9).

Today, the residents, complaining of health issues, find it is up to them to chase complaints and prove their case. And Page pointed out local government, the Department of Environmental Quality and the industries are also at the table looking for solutions.

Source: Hattisburg American

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Europe lists nine chemicals as Very High Concern

Europe requires chemicals of concern
to be used with specific authorization.

The European Commission has officially designated nine chemicals, including one used to make coated galvanized steel, as substances of very high concern, meaning their uses will have to be authorized.

In a separate action, Austria, Denmark, Germany and Sweden announced their intent to nominate an additional 10 chemicals as substances of very high concern (SVHC).

The European Commission regulation, published in the Aug. 19 Official Journal of the European Union, carries out recommendations made by the European Chemicals Agency in 2013.

The regulation places nine chemicals on the Annex 14 list of the registration, evaluation and authorization of chemicals (REACH) regulation (EC 1907/2006).

Listing in Annex 14 means the substance can't be used without specific authorization. The Aug. 19 regulation includes deadlines by which authorization requests must be filed. Depending on the chemical, the deadlines fall between Feb. 22, 2016, and July 22, 2017.

Steel-coating chemical of concern

Among the nine chemicals is strontium chromate (EC No. 232-142-6; CAS No. 7789-06-2), which is made in or imported into the European Union in a total volume ranging between 1,000 metric tons and 10,000 metric tons (1,102-11,023 U.S. short tons) per year, ECHA said in a background document supporting its recommendation. Much of that is exported, ECHA added.

Coil coating refers to steel that is coated, often including a layer of zinc, during the manufacturing process, as opposed to coating in batches after production. Flat-rolled steel is often shipped in rolls known as coils.

Wayne Pigment Corp. is the main U.S. company making strontium chromate, while Akzo Nobel Coatings Inc. is among the chemical's importers.

Strontium chromate primarily is used to protect steel and zinc in coil-coated galvanized steel, ECHA said. The coil-coated metal mainly is used in buildings.

Much smaller quantities of strontium chromate are used in primers, sealants, joint compounds and top coat paints for aerospace applications and in anticorrosion primers, in fillers and sealants for the construction and maintenance of heavy duty vehicles and trucks, military vehicles and agricultural equipment, ECHA said.

Other chemicals added to the list:

• Ethylene dichloride, also known as 1,2-dichloroethane. The most common use of 1,2-dichloroethane is to make vinyl chloride, which is used to make a variety of plastic and vinyl products, including polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes, furniture and automobile upholstery, wall coverings, housewares and automobile parts. The uses that would be subject to authorization are 1,2-dichloroethane's use as a solvent and as an ingredient in chemical mixtures, ECHA said.
• Oligomeric reaction products of formaldehyde with aniline (technical MDA);
• Arsenic acid;
• Bis(2-methoxyethyl) ether (diglyme);
• 2,2'-dichloro-4,4'-methylenedianiline;
• Dichromium tris(chromate);
• Potassium hydroxyoctaoxodizincatedichromate
• Pentazinc chromate octahydroxide

Member States Propose 10 SVHCs

Meanwhile, on Aug. 4 Austria, Denmark, Germany and Sweden filed information to support the nomination of several phthalates and other chemicals among 10 compounds they said should be classified as substances of very high concern.

Those 10 chemicals are:

• Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate
• 2-benzotriazol-2-yl-4,6-di-tert-butylphenol (UV-320) 
• Dibutyl phthalate 
• 2-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-4,6-ditertpentylphenol (UV-328) 
• Cadmium sulphate 
• Cadmium fluoride 
• 2-ethylhexyl 10-ethyl-4,4-dioctyl-7-oxo-8-oxa-3,5-dithia-4-stannatetradecanoate
• Diisobutyl phthalate 
• Benzyl butyl phthalate 
• A reaction chemical proposed by Austria

Source: Bloomberg News

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Formaldehyde threat real: Chemical industry

Formaldehyde is often used in wood products and has
been linked to cancer and other health concerns.

For years, the chemical industry has been winning a political battle to keep formaldehyde from being declared a known carcinogen.

The industry’s chief lobby group, the American Chemistry Council, has persuaded members of Congress that the findings of both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services were wrong and should be reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences.

In 2011, the academy did indeed criticize the EPA’s report on formaldehyde for being unclear. The chemical industry then used that critique to delay dozens of other ongoing evaluations of potentially toxic chemicals.

But recently, the academy issued a second report, which found in effect that government scientists were right all along when they concluded that formaldehyde can cause three rare forms of cancer.

“We are perplexed as to why today’s report differs so greatly from the 2011” report, Cal Dooley, president and chief executive officer of the American Chemistry Council, said in a statement titled “The Safety of Formaldehyde is Well-Studied and Supported by Robust Science.”

Part of the disparity is that in the 2011 report, Congress asked the academy only to critique the EPA’s draft assessment rather than evaluate the dangers of formaldehyde itself. The panel concluded that the EPA’s report was too long, repetitive and lacked explanation.

But after reviewing the scientific evidence itself, the academy concluded that formaldehyde is indeed a known carcinogen.

Formaldehyde is widely used in wood products and clothing.

In a blog posting, Jennifer Sass, a scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the American Chemistry Council’s efforts “a vicious attack on government scientific assessments [meant] to distort and discredit any evidence linking toxic chemicals to diseases, disabilities or death.”

Using the academy to review any negative findings from the EPA has become common tactic of the chemical industry.

The Center for Public Integrity reported in June that Rep. Mike Simpson, a Republican from Idaho, got the EPA to turn its negative assessment of arsenic over to the academy. At the same time, Congress also insisted that the EPA redo all ongoing assessments to address the criticisms of the 2011 formaldehyde review. Forty-seven assessments are affected.

The American Chemistry Council said in its statement that the academy “misses an opportunity to advance the science.”

Richard Denison, a scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, countered: “One can only hope that this sorry episode and waste of public resources will help to expose the narrow self-interest of the industry, which for years it has deceptively sought to wrap in the mantle of sound science.”

Source: Center for Public Integrity

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Chemical plants susceptible to terror risks

Many chemical facilities could become targets
of terrorist attacks, releasing toxic fumes: Experts

The government has failed to inspect virtually all of the chemical facilities that it considers to be at a higher risk for a terror attack and has underestimated the threat to densely populated cities, congressional investigators say.

The year-long investigation by Republican staff on the Senate Homeland Security Committee paints a picture of inspection delay, government errors in risk assessment and industry loopholes in a $595 million terror prevention program passed by Congress in 2006. A copy of the investigators' report was obtained by The Associated Press.

Coming a year after a massive explosion at a West, Texas, fertilizer plant, the report points to threats from the release of toxic and flammable chemicals.

Roughly half of the 4,011 high-risk facilities on the Department of Homeland Security watch list are in 10 states: California, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, Florida, Michigan and New Jersey.

The U.S. effort is "a broken program that is not making us measurably safer against the threat of a terrorist attack," states the report commissioned by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.

It said widespread problems have left many of the nation's riskiest chemical facilities "effectively unregulated."

The report relies in part on internal DHS documents, including an assessment of the terror program completed late last year that hasn't been released, and a federal database of higher-risk facilities.

DHS spokesman S.Y. Lee noted that the department has stepped up monitoring efforts, having approved security plans for 750 facilities in the last two years. DHS officials have called on Congress to authorize the program over multiple years — not just year to year — so the government and chemical companies can better plan for longer-range security.

"The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards program is an important part of our nation's counterterrorism efforts," Lee said, adding that DHS is committed "to build on the progress it has made."

The report said that as of June 30, DHS had failed to conduct security compliance inspections on 3,972 chemical facilities, or 99 percent of the 4,011 facilities initially considered at a higher risk for terrorism. Many facilities are chemical manufacturers; they also include farm supply retailers or fertilizer distribution warehouses.

DHS considers a chemical facility "higher risk" based on the amount of toxic or flammable chemicals on site, such as chlorine, a corrosive, or ammonium nitrate, which can be used to make explosives.

Final rankings, on a tier of one to four, are determined based on additional information provided to the government.

The committee found that roughly 3,111 of the facilities had yet to have security plans approved despite statements to DHS officials that it would be done. Investigators said it could take years for DHS to reduce the backlog.

The report also cites a DHS-commissioned study completed late last year that raised concerns the list of 4,011 higher risk facilities was not accurate, in some cases relying on outdated data or treating densely populated areas as lower threats due to coding errors.

Committee investigators have indicated that larger metropolitan regions such as Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia might be more vulnerable to a chemical attack. The report notes that rural accidents like the West, Texas, plant explosion "pale in comparison with the consequences of releasing large quantities of toxic gas into a densely-populated city."

Among other findings, the report points to industry loopholes. DHS grants exemptions to a number of industries including water and wastewater treatment, which use high amounts of chlorine, a toxic chemical. While the program regulates ammonium nitrate, it does not regulate 12 other chemicals that can also be used to make explosives.

The report urges substantial changes before Congress re-authorizes the terror prevention program for the year, such as allowing lower-risk facilities to self-certify their security plans meet DHS standards; fixing the risk assessment methodology; creating a permanent task force of industry experts to advise DHS; and giving DHS power to penalize companies that deliberately seek to ignore its regulations.

Source: San Jose Mercury News

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States take action on toxic chemicals regulations

Toxic chemicals can hide in many
commonly used products.

In Vermont, the Senate has just passed a bill potentially empowering the Green Mountain State to ban chemicals it deems harmful to consumers.

Some 3,000 miles away, in Washington State, environmental reformers weren’t as successful: A bill to ban six toxic flame retardants died in the Senate, beaten back by industry opposition and politicians’ cries of state overreaching.

In state capitols from Maine to Oregon, environmental advocates are filing bills to identify and ban noxious chemicals and industry groups are fighting back with pointed rebukes and high-pitched lobbying. Toxic reform legislation is either breathing with new life or being extinguished altogether.

The toxics tug-of-war in state houses is direct fallout from the muddled environmental politicking of Washington, D.C.

In 1976, Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act, a federal framework intended to safeguard the public from dangerous chemicals. Yet in the nearly four decades since, TSCA, as it is known, has done little more than gather dust.

Among tens of thousands of chemicals in commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency has “only been able to require testing on a little more than 200 existing chemicals,” and banned five, the EPA told The Center for Public Integrity.

Everyone wants to revamp TSCA — from the industry’s $100 million lobbying arm, the American Chemistry Council, to the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group, to the EPA itself.

Yet three years to the month since the late New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg proposed sweeping change through the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011, the TSCA overhaul remains in the works, with proposals, counter-proposals and criticisms about the working draft’s fine print.

Fed up with logjams in D.C., state legislators are filing hundreds of measures in their own states to do what the federal government hasn’t — take action against destructive chemicals, by singling out the most dangerous toxins and seeking to remove them from shelves.

As the Center for Public Integrity reported last year, the American Chemistry Council and other industry groups fight nearly every state measure, contending that a patchwork of state laws would do more harm than good, and that true change should come through TSCA.

Source: Center for Public Integrity. This article has been edited for length.

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Vermont pondering bill to regulate toxic chemicals

The bill would allow regulated use of
some chemicals that are harmful to health.

Federal regulations for reporting toxic chemicals in consumer products have not changed in decades, but Vermont is poised to join other states to label – and possibly ban – products containing chemicals considered harmful to public health.

Vermont has passed legislation to regulate the use of certain chemicals one at a time, including flame retardants, Bisphenol A (BPA), mercury and lead. But a new proposal would allow the Vermont Department of Health to expand this list every other year without legislative approval.

The bill, S.239, asks the department to create a list of potentially harmful chemicals and require manufacturers to label or remove toxic chemicals from their products – a proposal that has alarmed businesses across the country.

“Ultimately, we think industry should welcome some degree of regulation and transparency to provide the public better products and safer products,” Health Commissioner Harry Chen said in testimony last week before the Senate Economic Development Committee.

But some manufacturers say the list of toxic chemicals could be bad for business in Vermont. Some companies spend millions each year to report chemicals in their products in states with similar existing regulations, industry representatives told lawmakers drafting the bill.

The bill cleared the Senate Health and Welfare Committee (where it was introduced by Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden) and was then taken up by Senate Economic Development to address business concerns.

“I’m trying to bring the tension level down and let everybody know we’re not on a witch hunt,” committee Chair Sen. Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, said last week. “We’re just trying to protect people from bad chemicals.”

The committee later revised the bill to exempt electronic products and any chemicals found in ammunition for air rifles, such as lead. The bill was voted out of committee Friday and the full Senate will vote on the bill as soon as Wednesday.

Environmental groups support the bill. It would protect consumers against the harmful effects of toxic chemicals, according to Lauren Hierl, political director for the Vermont Conservation Voters.

Asthma, obesity, infertility and cancers are some of the health effects of chemicals found in products sold in Vermont, she said. “They are just exacerbating these bad health trends,” she said. Hierl said she does not expect Vermont to ban chemicals that do not have a replacement.

Under Vermont’s proposed system, the health department and an advisory committee would compile a list of chemicals considered harmful to health, require manufacturers to disclose to the state these chemicals found in their products and mandate that the chemicals be either labeled or not sold in the state.

Source: VT Digger. The article has been edited for length.

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A safer alternative to flame retardants: Milk proteins

Upholstered furniture and plastics often
contain flame retardant chemicals. 

Casein, a protein left over from cheese production, could be an ecofriendly and nontoxic alternative to current phosphate-based retardants

Many compounds currently used as flame retardants in upholstered furniture and plastics have come under scrutiny for their potentially harmful effects on the environment and human health.

Since manufacturers often rely on flame retardants to meet fire-safety standards for certain products, many have looked for nontoxic compounds as alternatives.

Now, researchers in Italy have demonstrated that caseins — proteins found in milk that are a by-product of cheese production — may fit the bill.

Some types of flame retardants, such as organophosphate esters, get their fire-blocking properties from their high phosphorus content. When they burn, a polymer layer of phosphoric acid forms and creates a char that blocks heat transfer to unburned areas of the material, slowing the spread of the fire.

Jenny Alongi of the Polytechnic University of Turin and her colleagues decided to investigate a family of proteins called caseins as alternative flame retardants because they contain a large number of phosphate groups.

Caseins are found in the whey that’s a by-product of cheese production, so in countries that produce a lot of cheese, such as Italy and France, the proteins are cheap and abundant, Alongi says.

Burn test results encouraging

The team coated three materials—cotton, polyester, and a blend of 65% polyester and 35% cotton—with the proteins by soaking the fabrics in distilled water mixed with casein powder. The researchers then submitted the samples to a battery of flammability tests.

The results were encouraging: In cotton- and polyester-only fabrics treated with caseins, flames extinguished themselves, leaving 86% of the cotton and 77% of the polyester unburned. The cotton-polyester blend burned completely but took 60% more time to do so than the untreated material.

The flame-retardant properties of caseins also compared well to those of ammonium polyphosphate (APP), a flame retardant used for fire proofing polyolefins and polyurethanes.

The caseins effectively form a char layer on the fabric samples. But unlike APP, they don’t produce toxic fumes during combustion.

Before caseins can be used as flame retardants, researchers need to work out many issues, such as preventing the proteins from washing off materials.

The team is now testing light-curable resins and molecules such as urea that could bond the casein molecules to the surface of the fabric, Alongi says. Another problem is that materials treated with caseins smell rancid.

Alongi and her colleagues are looking for ways to remove the molecules associated with casein that produce the odor.

The caseins performed well compared to current flame retardants, says Jacob de Boer, an analytical chemist at VU University Amsterdam, who has investigated the impact of organophosphorus flame retardants on the environment. He hopes the team pursues the research further.

Source: Chemical & Engineering News

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Scientist speaks out against herbicide manufacturer

Biologist Tyrone Hayes said he was prevented from
sharing his research results on a certain pesticide.

Tyrone Hayes found some evidence that a widely used herbicide may have harmful effects on the endocrine system.

But when he tried to publish the results, the chemical’s manufacturer launched a campaign to discredit his work.

Tyrone Hayes was first hired in 1997 by a company, which later became agribusiness giant Syngenta, to study their product, atrazine, a pesticide that is applied to more than half the corn crops in the United States, and widely used on golf courses and Christmas tree farms.

When Hayes found results Syngenta did not expect — that atrazine causes sexual abnormalities in frogs, and could cause the same problems for humans — it refused to allow him to publish his findings.

A new article in The New Yorker magazine uses court documents from a class action lawsuit against Syngenta to show how it sought to smear Hayes’ reputation and prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from banning the profitable chemical, which is already banned by the European Union.

Watch the interview here.

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Chemical giant taken to court by community

Living close to a chemical company
affected their health, residents say.

The neat, modest homes of Cannon's Campground and Bellview Acres conceal tales of sickness and death.

Carcinoma, leukemia, kidney tumors — dozens of homes have a story, and very few have happy endings.

After decades of suspecting the nearby Hoechst Celanese polyester manufacturing site and its various occupants of spewing toxic chemicals into the environment, the community filed a class action lawsuit in federal district court.

The lawsuit alleges known carcinogens used at the plant have leached into ground and surface water that flows through the communities, resulting in dozens of cancer cases.

The suit seeks an injunction of all pollution-causing activities on the site as well as an order to identify and treat existing contamination and to prevent any further migration beneath private property.

The plaintiffs also seek a health monitoring program for community members to be administered by the court and paid for by the defendants. They are seeking reimbursement for lost property values and civil penalties.

In an emailed statement, Celanese spokesman Travis Jacobsen said there is no connection between contaminated groundwater at the site and the groundwater in the communities because the areas are separated by streams acting as discharge boundaries.

"Simply put, the environmental conditions at the Spartanburg plant site have not caused adverse health effects or a loss of property values in the nearby residences," Jacobsen wrote.

S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency studied cancer data after residents suggested a pollution link, but in a 2011 report said a cancer cluster did not exist.

The study examined the entire ZIP code the plant is located in and not the specific area near the plant where chemicals could have migrated, critics say.

The primary plaintiff is Jay Easler, but the suit was filed on behalf of all residents living in a two-mile radius of the site at the intersection of Interstate 85 and the Pacolet River.

Easler owns property abutting a stream known to locals as "polluted creek."

At a community meeting in 2011, a Celanese spokesman said Hoechst Celanese was never cited for pollution and always adhered to existing environmental controls.

DHEC's website states many current regulations were not in place when the plant began operations in 1966. Soil and groundwater contaminants were discovered in 1990 and mitigation efforts began in 1996.

A series of wells were installed along the border of the property to pump groundwater to the surface for treatment. Several years later, when evidence of contamination remained, solutions were pumped into the ground in an attempt to dissolve or disperse the chemicals.

Despite mitigation efforts, DHEC documents cited in the lawsuit reveal rising toxicity in the contaminated soil and groundwater beneath the site and an expanding plume of contaminants reaching off the site. In 2011, the first-ever DHEC testing of private wells confirmed contaminants found at the site were also in the drinking water supply.

The chemicals were found only in trace amounts in the wells, but many people could have been exposed over prolonged periods of time. Many residents no longer use well water and have switched to the city water.

Source: GoUpstate.com

This article has been edited for length.

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Chemical demand may be on the rise

Strong auto sales
may boost demand
in basic chemicals.

Strong auto sales and an uptick in housing starts, which combined to spur modest growth in U.S. chemical production in 2013, will continue this year. What will be new and notable in 2014 is a manufacturing revival in the U.S. and economic expansion around the globe that will buoy demand for basic chemicals.

“Manufacturing needs and exports will drive demand for basic chemicals, especially where shale gas drives competitive advantage. Europe and many emerging markets will be stronger in 2014,” says T. Kevin Swift, chief economist at the American Chemistry Council, a trade group.

Combined, the positive trends should impact most segments of the U.S. chemical industry including plastics, basic chemicals, and specialties, according to ACC.

Compared with the 1.6% growth in chemical production that the U.S. saw in 2013, this year’s expected growth rate of 2.5% will be rather robust.

But the acceleration won’t happen until mid-2014 or later, says Sergey Shchepochkin, chemical industry analyst at credit insurance provider Euler Hermes.

By then, the rise in construction will have had downstream effects on demand for appliances and other durable goods.

Consumer spending will also create more demand for plastics and electronics, Shchepochkin says; paper and textile markets, in contrast, will continue to underperform.

Consumers around the world, not just in the U.S., will demand more autos and homes, which will boost chemical exports by 6.6% this year, according to Swift.

He expects a continuing trade surplus, with basic and specialty chemical exports more than offsetting imports of pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals.

Last year’s slowdown in demand from China’s manufacturing sector is likely to turn around this year, to the benefit of U.S. chemical exporters.

Meanwhile, the Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates, a trade group for smaller firms, has turned its eye to Europe as it advocates for the U.S. and European Union to agree early in the year on the trade-enhancing Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership.

Another big change for the U.S. chemical industry this year should be in employment, where expansion is helping to reverse what had been more than a decade of workforce decline.

Chemical jobs grew by an estimated 1.3% in 2013, says Swift, who expects additions to continue through 2018. Employment will follow the large capital investments in the U.S. brought by shale gas; the tally of new projects has reached 135 with a combined value of more than $90 billion.

Source: Chemical and Engineering News

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Flame retardant maker files lawsuit against new law

Flame retardants in furniture have been
linked to health risks, experts say.

A leading manufacturer of flame retardants is suing in an attempt to derail a new California law that seeks to keep the chemicals it makes out of upholstered furniture sold in the state.

The lawsuit filed in Sacramento by Chemtura Corp. argues that the law puts consumers at risk by changing a 4-decades-old flammability test that upholstered furniture must pass to be sold in California.

The intent of the change, which took effect this year, is to discourage furniture manufacturers from using flame retardant chemicals that have been linked to reproductive problems, developmental delays and cancer, as well as health effects that have not yet been studied.

But Chemtura says the new law will risk lives.

"If left unchallenged, California's revised, weakened fire safety standard could tragically lead to more fires and more injuries, deaths and property damage nationwide," said Anne Noonan, the Philadelphia company's senior vice president of industrial engineered products.

Chemtura, the first chemical company to challenge TB-117-2013 in court, has a lot of business at stake.

Under the old law, couches and other furniture with polyurethane foam had to withstand 12 seconds of a small, open flame, akin to a candle or a match. Furniture makers weren't required to use flame retardants but have used them to ensure they would pass the test.

Since then, independent studies have linked many flame retardants to health problems. Other research has questioned the merits of the test because small, open flames cause fewer fires involving residential furniture than smoldering cigarettes.

After a Chicago Tribune investigation in 2012 showed that chemical companies had distorted research to promote the safety of their products, scientists, regulators and advocates sought to reverse the 1975 California law that started it all.

The new law requires furniture upholstery to resist a cigarette-like smolder. Government officials and fire scientists say it will improve consumer safety and eliminate the need for flame retardants. Flame-retardant-free furniture has been trickling onto the market and will be mandatory by the beginning of 2015.

Chemtura, which filed its suit in Sacramento County Superior Court, is challenging the change by saying that the standard weakens fire safety and that the number of fires caused by small, open flames is, in fact, significant.

The law applies to any company that makes furniture to be sold in California, which has the world's eighth-largest economy, making it a major threat to flame-retardant makers. The chemicals are lucrative: A 2011 analysis projected global revenue from flame-retardant sales would reach $5.8 billion by 2018.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

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Safety overhaul for chemical plants under review

Chemical accidents have fuelled the need
for better mandatory safeguards.

An interagency panel created to weigh new chemical safety regulations in response to last April’s deadly explosion in Texas is considering a major overhaul of the way volatile substances are handled and stored, a new federal document shows.

The Chemical Facility Safety and Security Working Group, a task force made up of top-level officials from a variety of federal agencies, is asking for feedback on an array of potential new rules that could help avert future disasters.

The agencies offer nine sets of options across several categories, including mandatory — rather than voluntary — new safeguards. The regulations could include a shift to inherently safer technologies and the creation of a third-party audit system.

The working group, led by the secretaries of Homeland Security and Labor, along with the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), stressed that the list of potential actions, released late Friday, is merely a starting point.

“This document is a tool for prompting additional thought and obtaining additional information necessary to further evaluate, refine, and supplement these initial options, and we anticipate that the options may change significantly in the coming months,” the agencies wrote.

Included in the proposal are measures to tighten regulations for the storage and handling of ammonium nitrate, the chemical involved in last April’s fertilizer plant in West, Texas, which killed 15 people and injured more than 200.

The agencies are seeking information about the costs associated with implementing the measures under consideration.

Still, the proposal raised red flags within the industry, where businesses fear the working group will pursue actions “that will further complicate an overly complex regulatory system,” according to a statement from the American Chemistry Council (ACC).

The council said it was encouraged that the agencies incorporated some of the industry’s suggestions in the report, including measures to strengthen coordination between various regulators and improve information sharing between first responders.

But the ACC, which favors shoring up existing rules, is worried that the agencies are considering “a regulatory model that would exceed the authority the agencies have today instead of focusing on how to improve current programs,” according to the statement.

More than 100 groups making up the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters contend that a transition from reactive safeguards to a more preventive set of policies is exactly what is needed to prevent future accidents, or at least minimize their impact.

The group is encouraged by the breadth and scope of the potential actions under consideration, including the incorporation of “inherently safer technologies,” said Rick Hind, who serves as legislative director for Greenpeace, a member of the coalition.

“They’re actually taking a look at the regulatory gaps,” Hind said.

Members of the public and interested parties can weigh in on the potential actions being floated.

President Obama created the working group via executive order on Aug. 1, though the panel's work has been fraught with delays connected to last fall's government shutdown.

Source: The Hill

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EPA improves access to chemical data

Agency releases information on 1,800 chemicals and announces ToxCast Data Challenges

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released chemical screening data accessible through the new interactive Chemical Safety for Sustainability or iCSS Dashboard.

Only a fraction of the chemicals used today have been
tested for adverse health effects, experts say.

The iCSS Dashboard provides access to data from innovative screening technologies for chemicals that are found in industrial and consumer products, food additives and drugs.

“EPA’s use of cost effective advanced chemical screening techniques has transformed this country’s knowledge of the safety of almost 2,000 chemicals currently in use,” said Lek Kadeli, acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and Development.

As part of this data release, EPA is announcing the ToxCast Data Challenges, a series of challenges inviting the science and technology community to work with the data and provide solutions for how the new chemical screening data can be used to predict potential health effects. Challenge winners will receive awards for their innovative research ideas.

The data were gathered through advanced techniques, including robotics and high-throughput screening, as part of an ongoing federal collaboration to improve chemical screening.

The collaboration, Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century (Tox21), is comprised of EPA, the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences/National Toxicology Program, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and the Food and Drug Administration.

“Making these data publicly available will help researchers across disciplines to better identify hazardous chemicals, “ said Raymond Tice, Ph.D., who heads the Biomolecular Screening Branch at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of NIH.

“We are pleased to be a partner in these collaborative efforts and look forward to further enhancing the amount of Tox21 data available to the public.”

Only a fraction of chemicals in use in the United States have been adequately assessed for potential risk. This information is useful for prioritizing chemicals for potential risk as well as predicting if chemical exposures could lead to adverse health effects.

More information is available on the EPA website.

Source: EPA

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Chemical companies turn to new specialties for growth

A buy-sell strategy doesn't always work,
but it looks promising, experts say.

Triggered by the recession that began in 2008, major chemical companies are aggressively re-inventing themselves through multi-billion dollar overhauls, reports Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.

Rather than growing through the expansion of existing operations into emerging economies, which continue to suffer from the downturn, large chemical firms are now shedding some of those operations and investing in specialty areas with higher growth.

Marc S. Reisch, senior correspondent at C&EN, explains that in the past five years, three of the world's chemical giants — DuPont, Dow and Clariant — and others have acquired specialty companies positioned in areas where they see market potential.

The three companies are currently reorganizing by selling older chunks of their businesses.

The article points out that this buy-sell strategy doesn't always work, but so far, the approach is promising.

DuPont's 2011 purchase of industrial enzyme maker Danisco has been "a game changer" as it sheds its performance chemicals businesses.

Dow has forged its way into the advanced materials market in one fell swoop with the purchase of Rohm and Haas in 2009.

And Clariant, through its acquisition of the German company Süd Chemie in 2011, has added to its portfolio specialty chemicals, such as catalysts and battery materials, meanwhile selling off less desirable assets, such as their textile chemicals unit.

Source: American Chemical Society

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OSHA announces programmed inspections of toxic chemical industries

OSHA aims to reduce occupational
illnesses and deaths.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is launching a local emphasis program in Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri for programmed health inspections of industries known to use hazardous chemicals and who have reported release of such chemicals to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The goal is to reduce occupational illnesses and deaths,

"This local emphasis program will make efficient use of OSHA's industrial hygiene resources by focusing on industrial sites that are known to have released EPA-monitored hazardous chemicals," said Marcia Drumm, acting regional administrator for OSHA in Kansas City.

"Through this program, OSHA will improve education for company management and strengthen protections for workers exposed to these chemicals."

Chemicals reported to the EPA that have been released into the environment include ammonia; barium, chromium and copper compounds; hydrochloric acid; hydrogen fluoride; lead and manganese compounds; N-hexane; styrene; sulfuric acid; and nitrate, vanadium and zinc compounds.

Industries will be selected for inspection based on site-specific chemical release data from the EPA's TRI Explorer database, which lists industry establishments that have released chemical quantities equal to or exceeding 100,000 pounds.

OSHA has created a toolkit to identify safer chemicals that can be used in place of more hazardous ones. The toolkit is available here.

Local emphasis programs are enforcement strategies designed and implemented at the regional and/or area office levels.

These programs are intended to address hazards in industries that pose a particular risk to workers in the office's jurisdiction.

Often times, these local emphasis programs are accompanied by outreach intended to make employers in the area aware of the program, as well as the hazards that the programs are designed to reduce or eliminate.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees.

OSHA's role is to ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance.

Source: OSHA

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Renewable chemicals industry booming

Companies use renewable chemicals derived from rosemary, potato, spearmint, marigold and many other plants

WASHINGTON — Nearly two decades ago, Kemin Industries began toiling in its labs with rosemary, convinced the perennial herb had a future beyond its traditional use as a fragrance or flavoring additive in popular food dishes.

Today, the Des Moines-based nutritional ingredients company produces extract from rosemary that is used by Fortune 500 companies to extend the shelf life in pet food, cereal, meats, salad dressings, skin creams and other products — replacing chemicals produced synthetically in the lab.

The growth of renewable chemicals such as rosemary extract has been spurred by a volatile marketplace for petroleum, a common ingredient used to make packaging.

Marigold plant is used in dietary supplements,
food, personal care and cosmetic products.
Photo by Keattikorn/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Consumers also are demanding more natural ingredients in their favorite products without having to pay more for them.

Major companies such as Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble are among the business giants that have taken notice, using renewable chemicals to replace those made with petroleum in packaging, cleaning products and cosmetics.

Food companies have joined in the move by spending millions of dollars on research to develop new ingredients produced by Mother Nature for their packaged goods.

Kemin’s work extends beyond rosemary to include the marigold, which contains a molecule, lutein, that helps protect and maintain eye and skin health. The company also has done work with a potato that has a protein used by dietary supplement makers in weight management products. The protein signals to a person’s brain that his stomach is full.

A decade ago, less than 5 percent of what Kemin sold came from plants; now it’s 35 percent — totaling $200 million in sales annually. It’s expected to hit 50 percent by 2016.

The overall renewable chemical ingredient market is expected to top $83 billion by 2018, compared with $57 billion this year, according to the research firm Markets and Markets. In the United States alone, the Agriculture Department estimates more than 3,000 companies currently manufacture or distribute biobased products.

To be sure, renewable chemicals face their own series of obstacles before they can be widely used in the marketplace. Researchers and manufacturers must prove to their buyers that the replacement chemical performs as well as or better than its traditional counterpart and can be made for at least the same price.

Similar to many new technologies, the initial cost can be prohibitive and restrict broader use of the technology. But over time, changes and improvements help foster wider use.

Editor's note: This article has been edited for length.

Source: Des Moines Register

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Industry group slams EPA’s formaldehyde regulations

Plywood and particleboard often emit
formaldehyde, which was linked to cancer.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has filed formal comments, bashing proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations as arbitrary and reaching well beyond the intent of Congress.

The draft rule in question would create new standards for formaldehyde emissions released during the manufacture of certain wood products, such as plywood and particleboard.

Plants, animals and humans naturally produce small amounts of formaldehyde, though exposure to large amounts could lead to cancer, according to the EPA. The resins used when making composite wood products often contain formaldehyde.

In 2010, President Obama signed into law the Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act, which requires the agency to draft regulations to address the health threat.

The ACC supports a national standard, but favors an approach in line with regulations adopted in California. The EPA’s rule, which sat under review at the White House before it was proposed in May, is more restrictive than the standard applied by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), Jackson Morrill, director of ACC’s Formaldehyde Panel.

“EPA’s proposed rule…is not based on the best available science, greatly overstates any tangible health benefits, and will send confusing messages in the marketplace,” Morrill said. “EPA discounts the scientific evidence of a threshold for health effects, disagrees with findings from international authoritative bodies and presents valuations that are not based on biological evidence.”

The ACC argues that major strides have been made to bring formaldehyde emissions in line with the California standards, including the development of ultra-low emitting formaldehyde (ULEF) resins.

Congress, the group charges, envisioned a system equivalent to the California Airborne Toxic Control Measure (ATCM).

“EPA has exceeded Congressional intent by proposing a regulation that is not technology-based and that differs significantly from the CARB ATCM,” Morrill said.

The groups formal comment period for the draft rule closed this week. The EPA will consider all submissions before finalizing the regulations.

Source: The Hill Regulation Blog

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P&G halts use of 2 chemicals in personal care products

When it comes to beauty and personal care products, the promises may not be worth the possible health effects. In recent years, consumers have become more concerned about what kind of chemicals they are exposed to on a regular basis.

Companies are slowly phasing out
toxic chemicals from beauty products.

It seems to be working.

Procter & Gamble has announced it is phasing out the use of two chemicals by 2014 from its beauty and personal care products.

The chemicals are phthalates and triclosan, which advocates say have been linked to birth defects and infertility.

“We made a strategic choice to exit the use of these two ingredients for a couple of reasons, including feedback from some of the people who use our products,” company spokesman Dr. Scott Heid was quoted in a Cincinnati News article.

The company recently updated its timetable for discontinuing the chemicals’ use on its web site.

The company says the chemicals are safe and approved by regulators.

P&G says it will stop use of diethyl phthalate (DEP), the only phthalate it still uses. The chemical evaporates slowly and helps scents and colors last longer in products such as soap and shampoo.

Other types of phthalates called DBP and DEHP have been banned by the European Union and dropped by consumer product companies.

The consumer products giant also says it will stop using triclosan, an ingredient that slows or stops the growth of germs such as bacteria and mildew. P&G uses the antibacterial chemical in some of its dish soap, professional hand soap and other personal care products.

Source: Cincinnati News

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Chemical info available through EPA Web Tool

Tool expands access to scientific, regulatory information on chemicals

The web tool allows for a comparison
of multiple chemicals.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a web-based tool, called ChemView, to significantly improve access to chemical specific regulatory information developed by EPA and data submitted under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

The ChemView web tool displays key health and safety data in an online format that allows comparison of chemicals by use and by health or environmental effects.

The search tool combines available TSCA information and provides streamlined access to EPA assessments, hazard characterizations, and information on safer chemical ingredients.

In addition, the new web tool allows searches by chemical name or Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) number, use, hazard effect, or regulatory action. It has the flexibility to create tailored views of the information on individual chemicals or compare multiple chemicals sorted by use, hazard effect or other criteria.

The new portal will also link to information on manufacturing, processing, use, and release data reported under the Chemical Data Reporting Rule, and the Toxics Release Inventory.

In the months ahead, EPA will be continuously adding additional chemicals, functionality and links. When fully updated, the web tool will contain data for thousands of chemicals. EPA has incorporated stakeholder input into the design, and welcomes feedback on the current site.

To view and search ChemView, click here.

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