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Canada is proposing a ban on asbestos, and the US Environmental Protection Agency has listed it among the first 10 materials it is investigating under the new Toxic Substances Control Act revisions. However, this effort is currently running up against enormous industry and political opposition. Here, we detail the activities in the early 1970s of the Friction Materials Standards Institute, an industry trade association, to stifle earlier attempts to regulate asbestos use in brake linings, one of the oldest and most obvious sources of asbestos exposure to mechanics, among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EFSA is committed to assess and communicate the risks occurring in the food and feed chain from farm to fork and to provide other forms of scientific advice. This work, carried out by EFSA since its inception, has resulted in the adoption of thousands of scientific assessments. EFSA is obliged to re-assess past assessments in specific regulatory contexts such as those on food and feed additives, active substances in plant protection products and genetically modified food and feed. In other sectors, the consideration for updating past EFSA scientific assessments is taken on an ad hoc basis mainly depending on specific requests by risk managers or on EFSA self-tasking. If safety is potentially at stake in any area within EFSA's remit, the readiness to update past scientific assessments is important to keep EFSA at the forefront of science and to promote an effective risk assessment. Although this task might be very complex and resource demanding, it is fundamental to EFSA's mission. The present EFSA Scientific Committee opinion deals with scientific motivations and criteria to contribute to the timely updating of EFSA scientific assessments. It is recognised that the decision for updating should be agreed following careful consideration of all the relevant elements by the EFSA management, in collaboration with risk managers and stakeholders. The present opinion addresses the scientific approaches through which it would be possible for EFSA to increase the speed and effectiveness of the acquisition of new data, as well as, to improve the consequent evaluations to assess the relevance and reliability of new data in the context of contributing to the better definition of whether to update past scientific assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the harmful effects of e-waste on the developing world and the international environmental laws for e-waste regulation. It discusses the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes & Their Disposal . It mentions regulations to manage e-waste such as U.S Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the European Union's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive and the Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Hazardous Substances.

In global environmental cooperation, legally binding agreements remain a customary way for states to set common goals and standards. This article analyzes the Minamata Convention on Mercury by addressing three questions: First, how did linkages to earlier agreements shape the negotiations? Second, what were the main legal and political issues during the negotiations? Third, what are the major issues moving forward with treaty implementation and mercury abatement? The analysis shows that the decision to start treaty negotiations was influenced by related policy developments on hazardous chemicals as well as differences in national interests. Five sets of issues dominated the negotiations: 1) supply and trade, 2) products and processes, 3) emissions and releases, 4) artisanal and small-scale gold mining, and 5) resources and compliance. The article concludes that future mercury abatement hinges on the parties' ability to move beyond the initial mandates, as the convention may affect decisions by a wide range of public, private, and civil society actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Flame Retardant Association (EFRA) combines leading companies offering the largest spectrum of flame retardants (FRs). EFRA conducted many studies on the recycling of FRplastics. This study concerns the recycling of plastics from liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and addresses the RoHS and WEEE directives (Restriction on Hazardous Substances and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), requiring a higher tonnage of recycled plastics. Recycling standards are developed within the committee IEC TC111. A new technical report IEC/TR 62635 Ed1.0: "Guidelines for End-of-Life information provision from manufacturers and recyclers, and for recyclability rate calculation of Electrical and Electronic Equipment", aims for better and higher quality of recycled materials. EFRA cooperated with REWARD, a project in the ECOINNOVATION program of FP7, with partners Recycling Consult, Coolrec/PHB and BRGM. Due to higher external fire safety requirements for TV housings in Europe, more FR-plastics need to be recycled following the recast of the WEEE directive. As a consequence WEEE plastics need to be processed by mechanical recycling instead of energy recovery. The EFRA and REWARD study describe composition, characterization, identification, size reduction and separation techniques. This article provides guidance to achieve the required plastic qualities and its limitations due to separation constraints and miscibility problems of the different plastics. A separation route on paper is developed for plastics from back covers of LCDs. It is found that a combination of mild size reduction, density separation and sensor based sorting gives the best results. Fractions are tested for their miscibility with virgin plastics by producers. The findings are of importance since presently solutions for FR-plastic separation are hardly offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses why the act of war defense failed and also highlights law for property owners who assert this defense. Topics discussed include liability standards under the U.S. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), types of defenses that people may raise against CERCLA liability, and the legislative history of the act of war defense clause. It also mentions government regulations on hazardous substances.

The article focuses on green chemistry which is defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the design of chemical products and processes that lessen or remove the utility or generation of hazardous substance. It states that a business-to-business standard for hazardous substance reduction is being crafted by the American Chemical Society (ACS), through its Green Chemistry Institute (GCI) with the collaboration of federal agencies, nonprofits, end users, and industry. It mentions the efforts of the Department of Defense (DOD) regarding the promotion of green chemistry. It also discusses the Registration Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemical Substance (REACH), the legislation that promotes green chemistry created by the European Union. INSET: The 12 Principles of Green Chemistry.

As a result of concerns about the toxicity of phthalates to humans, several expert panels were convened toward the end of the 1990s to evaluate the implications of the scientific evidence for the risks of phthalates to humans of all ages. These panels concluded that the risks were low although they had concerns about specific applications of some phthalates, e.g., in medical devices. These groups identified data gaps and recommended additional studies on exposure and toxicity be conducted. In light of the additional data, reevaluations of the risks of phthalates were conducted. While these assessments were being undertaken, U.S. state governments and European authorities proposed and promulgated regulations to limit the use of certain phthalates, i.e., di-n-octyl phthalate (DnOP), di-isodecyl phthalate (DIDP), di-isononyl phthalate (DINP), butylbenzyl phthalate (BBP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), especially in consumer products to which children are exposed. Very recently, similar regulations were promulgated in the United States under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. This article summarizes recent evaluations of the risks of these phthalates, and addresses the public health implications of the regulations that were enacted. The analysis considers biomonitoring studies and epidemiological research in addition to laboratory animal evidence. Analysis of all of the available data leads to the conclusion that the risks are low, even lower than originally thought, and that there is no convincing evidence of adverse effects on humans. Since the scientific evidence strongly suggests that risks to humans are low, phthalate regulations that have been enacted are unlikely to lead to any marked improvement in public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrical and electronic equipment manufacturers are subjected to an increasing number of restrictions on the substances that they can use to build their products. Many are hazardous substances that could potentially harm human beings or the environment, whereas some other more recent restrictions affect substances where no risk has been demonstrated. Legislation is being imposed worldwide with the EU in the forefront, with other countries following with similar restrictions. This article describes current restrictions worldwide and possible new future restrictions that might be imposed in the foreseeable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights the experience of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to demonstrate the value of accurate information in risk-based environmental regulation. In monitoring sources of hazardous air pollutants (HAP), the TCEQ used modern mobile-monitoring technologies which provide immediate feedback to the team involved in HAP monitoring and assessment. In contrast, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employed the residual-risk paradigm which is based on the iterative process mandated by the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act.

The article discusses the failure of chemical regulation in the U.S. and explores regulatory reform that causes market competition between firms to produce information on chemical products toxicity. It explains how the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) affects the selection in the chemical market by failing to promote toxicity testing. It examines how competition-based approach to chemical regulation is appropriate within the regulatory toolkit and whether such measure can be transferred to the regulation of other products and polluting activities.

Directive 2002/95/EC, the Restriction of Hazardous Substances or ‘RoHS’ Directive, restricts the use of environmentally hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment distributed and sold in the EU from 1 July 2006. The Directive's objectives are to harmonize EU Member States’ national legislation and protect human health and the environment. This article reveals differences in the implementation of the RoHS Directive at the time it took effect. Differences were revealed in the analysis of results obtained from telephone interviews conducted with all but four of the 25 EU Member State RoHS enforcement officials. Differences in implementation created barriers to the achievement of the RoHS Directive's objectives and caused problems for producers of electrical and electronic equipment. The article attributes the principal cause of differences in implementation to insufficiently detailed text in the RoHS Directive. The article also considers how barriers and problems could have been prevented and makes proposals to solve them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, organophosphate and polybrominated flame retardants are used in building materials and electric appliances to protect them from fire hazards. In this study, to identify the emission sources of these flame retardants to indoor air, the migration rates (flux) of organophosphate and polybrominated flame retardants from building materials and electrical appliances to solid extraction disks that were placed in contact with the interior surfaces were measured. In addition to the migration test, indoor air and outdoor air concentrations of these flame retardants were investigated. With regard to building materials in a newly built house, triethylphosphate (TEP) and tributylphosphate (TBP) were detected in the wall and ceiling coverings, and tris(2-butoxyethyl)phosphate (TBEP) was detected in the wooden flooring cleaned with a floor polish agent. With regard to electrical appliances, triphenylphosphate (TPHP) was predominantly detected in computer monitors and tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) in television (TV) sets, with the highest median levels. Among the polybrominated compounds, only 2,2′,4,4′-tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47) was detected from a few old TV sets manufactured before 1995. In an indoor and outdoor air survey, nine organophosphates and nine polybrominated flame retardants were detected from indoor air. In outdoor air, only four organophosphate flame retardants were detected. The maximum level of indoor organophosphate compounds was 1260 ng/m3 with tris(2-chloro-1-methylethyl) phosphate (TCPP), and that of polybrominated compounds was 29.5 ng/m3 with hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD). Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) was not detected in this study, although it has the largest demand among flame retardants in Japan. The results of the migration test and the indoor air survey revealed that in indoor air, organophosphate compounds were more predominant than polybrominated compounds in Tokyo. Practical Implications Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) are commonly used as flame retardants in plastics. The use of these two compounds in electric appliances will be banned in 2007 by the EU Directives on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances (RoHS) in electrical and electronic equipment. In Japan, the use of PBB was banned and that of PBDE diminished in the early 1990s by the self-imposed controls of the Japanese Flame Retardants Conference ( Akutu and Hori, 2004 ). In Japan, the predominantly used organic flame retardants were tetrabromobisphenol A and organophosphate compounds. Tetrabromobisphenol A has been reported to disrupt endocrine systems ( Kitamura et al., 2005 ), and some organophosphate flame retardants were recently reported to have neurochemical hazardous effects. Furthermore, organophosphate compounds were suspected to cause endocrine-disrupting effects ( Fang et al., 2003 ; Ohyama et al., 2005 ) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) ( Winrow et al., 2003 ). In this study, organophosphate and polybrominated flame retardants were surveyed in indoor environments in Tokyo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an article explaining how to comply with the new OSHA, (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) standard `29 CFR part 1910, Occupational Exposures to Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories.' The fume hood is the most important laboratory safety appliance and OSHA recommends number required per person, performance criteria, construction details, and the need to instruct all personnel in their proper use. INSET: About the editor..

Reports that the Center for Occupational Research and Development has released its Hazardous Materials Management Technology Skills Standard. Contact information; Retail price.

Part V. Explores the impact of the use of parathion as a substitute to DDT on workers in the United States (U.S.). Information on the decision of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ban DDT insecticide; Environmental impact of DDT; Increase in poisoning related to the increase use of parathion.

The article discusses the South African regulations for hazardous materials or products supplied to mines under the Mine Health and Safety Act. Miners are required to issue a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) as a component of product knowledge and workplace safety. The country uses the Naval Engineering Standard (NES) 713 to determine the toxicity of materials.

Presents case report regarding the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) noncompliance issued to methylene-chloride-based gluing operations in two separate facilities. Lack of OSHA-required worker training on hazardous chemicals; Non-agreement with the permissible exposure limit set by the OSHA.

The article discusses the issuance of the Hazardous Weather Release Prevention and Reporting alert by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to remind facility operators of the regulations which mandate minimization of chemical releases during procedure shutdown operations in 2017.

The article discusses the response of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) to the proposal of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set significant new use rules (SNURs) for chemical substances. ASSE comments on the workplace protections that the agency has proposed for the seven substances and the risks associated with exposure to carbon nanotubes. The recommendations of ASSE for the EPA are included.

The author reflects on the developments of the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty which was designed to protect the ozone layer. He stresses that the voting of the proposed regulation of hydrofluorocarbons by its member countries in Bali, Indonesia will be tough. The author believes that highly-industrialized countries will certainly not favor of the said regulation to protect their interests. Moreover, he expresses support for the proposal, and considers the regulation as a fair system.

The article reports on the update of the International Air Transport Association's Dangerous Goods Regulations, which will take effect on January 1, 2017.

The article reports on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative as part of the Safety, Health and Environment (SH&E) program in the U.S. It emphasizes the role of the CSR initiative in achieving the goals of the SH&E regulatory compliance. It also mentions the SH&E trends in the regulatory compliance of the environment which include the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) regulations in Europe and the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (ROHS).