Chemical Engineering Trends, Intellectual Property Litigation, & Industry Predictions – IMS Insights Podcast Episode 50
What to Expect in Chemicals Policy and Regulation and on Capitol Hill in 2023
PFAS are a chemically diverse family of over 10,000 synthetic fluorinated compounds, all containing at least one carbon-fluorine (C–F) bond. This makes them highly persistent and earns them the nickname "forever chemicals."...more
Brazilian Federal Law No. 15.022/2024 was enacted in November 2024. The law is also known as the "Chemical Substances Registration Act" or as the "Brazilian REACH". The law establishes rules for creating a National Inventory...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on July 28, 2025, the release of a memorandum with additional context on occupational exposure data for di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP). According to EPA, the...more
On 17 July 2025, a bipartisan bill aimed at uncovering the potential human health implications of exposures to microplastics in the food and water supply was introduced into Congress. Introduced by Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-OR),...more
On 8 July 2025, the European Commission presented its European Chemicals Industry Action Plan. The Action Plan aims to strengthen the competitiveness and resilience of the European chemical sector while driving the transition...more
Do you want to destroy PFAS? But why stop there? Continue on to convert them into high value fluorochemicals, and recover and reuse the phosphate salts. That’s what one new study claims it can do....more
As reported in our May 14, 2025, blog item, on May 12, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denied a petition filed under Section 21 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) seeking to prohibit the use of...more
As reported in our April 11, 2025, blog item, applications for currently unavoidable use determinations for products containing intentionally added perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and scheduled to be...more
A recent study published in Nature Microbiology by researchers at the University of Cambridge revealed that certain human gut bacteria may have the capacity to bioaccumulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and...more
On June 30, 2025, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a report entitled 2D Titanium Carbide MXenes: Case Study Report on Advanced Materials. Within OECD’s Working Party on Manufactured...more
California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) proposed adding microplastics as a Candidate Chemical to be regulated under the Safer Consumer Products (SCP) program on June 20, 2025. This action and its subsequent...more
On June 2, 2025, the United Kingdom (UK) Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) requested comment on a draft indicative list for long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (LC-PFCA), their salts, and related...more
The Presidential Commission to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) has released its assessment identifying key drivers of childhood chronic disease, including poor diet and aggregation of environmental chemicals. The report...more
In response to President Trump’s February 13, 2025, Executive Order (EO) 14212, “Establishing The President’s Make America Healthy Again Commission,” the White House issued part of what is being called “The MAHA Report” (with...more
As the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Administrator Lee Zeldin lays out an ambitious regulatory agenda related to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), state lawmakers, state attorneys general,...more
By June 1, all entities that supply, manufacture, produce, or distribute aerosol products that contain fluorinated greenhouse gases with a GWP20 greater than 10 (regulated substances), for sale or use in New York, must...more
The Trump Administration released its Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment on May 22, 2025, documenting its rationale for future policy actions related to chronic disease in children. The report focuses on four key...more
On May 22, 2025, President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission released an assessment titled “The MAHA Report: Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment.” The report—framed as a “call to action”—stems from a...more
The European Commission (EC) requested that the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) assess the risks posed by certain hexavalent chromium substances. ECHA announced on April 29, 2025, that it has concluded that a European Union...more
This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Karyn Schmidt, now a principal at Squire Patton Boggs in its Public Policy practice, after spending 25 years at the American Chemistry Council (ACC). For the many members in the...more
On April 8, 2025, New Mexico became the third state to sign into law a comprehensive ban on the use of intentionally added per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in consumer and commercial products: the “Per- and...more
“Contaminants Compass” is a monthly newsletter that provides updates, legal observations and actionable tips to navigate the evolving legal “Contaminants Compass” is a monthly newsletter that provides updates, legal...more
The California Senate Environmental Quality Committee passed California Senate Bill 682 aiming to ban the sale of products with intentionally added perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) unless deemed to have...more
Maine recently published proposed rules (PDF link) aimed at implementation of its existing statute (which we’ve discussed here, here and here) limiting the sale and distribution within the state of products containing...more
The United Kingdom’s (UK) Health and Safety Executive (HSE) announced on March 21, 2025, that it has published the following annual report and work program on activities under the UK regulation on the Registration,...more