The EPA has taken some significant steps that will impact consumer chemical regulation in California and beyond.
THE GIVETH
First, the EPA added ten chemicals to its Safer Chemical Ingredients List. This is a list of chemicals with many uses specific to cleaners and disinfectants with the goal of showcasing ingredients that are considered safe for human use and some companies seek its certification, particularly custodial and housecleaning companies. According to the EPA, the idea is that this list "helps consumers, businesses and purchasers find products containing ingredients that are safer for human health and the environment". This certification can be a big deal in the industry and certain trade groups are big fans of the program, which was all but dormant in the prior administration. For those interested, the newly added chemicals are listed below. Note that fats and vegetable oil are now considered safe. Why they were not considered safe may be a head scratcher and we will be doing a follow up on that one. Good to know that the bacon we have eaten all these years is now less bad for us than previously thought.
- Fats and glyceridic oils, vegetable, hydrogenated;
- tocopherols;
- sulfuric acid, dimethyl ester, compd with .alpha.,.alpha.',.alpha.'',.alpha.'''-[1,6-hexanediylbis(nitrilodi-2,1-ethanediyl)]tetrakis[.omega.-hydroxypoly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyl)];
- glycolipids, sophorose-contg, candida bombicola-fermented, from D-glucose and mahua madhuca longifolia fats and glyceridic oils;
- 1,4-benzenedicarboxylic acid, 1,4-dimethyl ester, polymer with 1,2-ethanediol, .alpha.-hydro-.omega.-hydroxypoly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyl) and 1,2-propanediol, ester with .alpha.-methyl-.omega.-hydroxypoly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyl);
- dodecanoic acid, ester with 1,2-propanediol;
- diisopropyl succinate;
- diisopropyl sebacate;
- methyl propanediol; and
- methyl ethyl ketone.
THE TAKETH AWAY
Now, while the EPA added some to the list it is seeking to take some off, and I am sure it surprises no one that the target is PFAS. Specifically, by January 2024 two PFAS chemicals will be removed from the list.
This involves notifying manufacturers that they need to remove these from any Safer Chemical certified list. The EPA decided to delete an amphoteric fluorinated surfactant and a boron-based polymer. The removal takes effect in a year. This removal is part of the agency's overall PFAS Roadmap, a detailed plan for addressing, regulating and eventually eliminating PFAS from use, and it has spent a great deal of time focused on proposed rules addressing PFAS in water systems. (This is a separate issue and proposed testing levels for PFAS in water are proposed in the parts per trillion. More on the challenges this presents in a later post.)
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
What this means to California – and all state - consumer chemical regulation is that companies wishing to carry the certified label bestowed on chemicals regulated by the program have to make changes to keep it whether the state its in is actively regulating PFAS or not. These two PFAS chemicals, used in applications including flooring, will not be allowed for use in new products applying for certification, and any existing certified products that contain these two PFAS chemicals must be reformulated. The rule will take effect in a year.
IMMEDIATE IMPACT
For now, if companies in this space want the certification, and there are some business for which this is important for competitive reasons, they have a year to drop certain chemicals that could not qualify for the certified seal of approval, or buy reformulated ones. Will that be a significant cost? Too soon to tell, but odds are yes in the short term. What about the long term? The EPA admits that there is an incomplete understanding of the toxicological profile of PFAS and says it will change course if necessary as a more complete picture of the potential health and environmental effects of these substances develops. While flexibility is laudable, the question remains as to whether too much regulation is being done too soon to too many based on incomplete data and continuing disagreement on PFAS testing methodologies. That question remains regardless of whether chemicals can keep certification.
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