In response to requests from trade associations representing meat industry interests, California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has extended the comment period on its proposal to list nitrite in combination with amines or amides as known to the state to cause cancer under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Prop. 65). If these substances are added to the Prop. 65 list, companies making products containing them will be required to provide warnings to California consumers. Comments are now requested by May 8, 2014. See OEHHA News Release, February 28, 2014. Meanwhile, OEHHA has also issued the agenda for the March 27, 2014, meeting of the Biomonitoring California Scientific Guidance Panel, which will convene in Oakland; the meeting will be accessible via Webinar. Program and laboratory updates are on the agenda, and the panel will also discuss chromium as a potential designated chemical and…
Tag Archives OEHHA
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) will conduct a symposium on children’s health February 25-26, 2014, in Sacramento. According to OEHHA, the agency will conduct the symposium “to hear some of the latest science regarding impacts of chemical exposures during development. This is a broad topic and thus we are focusing in three areas: 1) epigenetic changes from environmental exposures; 2) impacts of toxicants on the developing lung and brain: 3) new in vitro methods for assessing potential for developmental toxicity.” OEHHA hopes that regulatory scientists in the state will begin thinking about (i) “How to incorporate complex interactions into risk assessment, particularly for early life exposures”; (ii) “How to incorporate information from new toxicity testing paradigms into risk assessments now; and” (iii) “How to incorporate impacts of non-chemical stressors that increase vulnerability, and whether current methods of risk assessment adequately account for at least some of…
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has announced that, effective January 31, 2014, trichloroethylene will be listed as known to the state to cause reproductive toxicity for purposes of Proposition 65 (Prop. 65). According to OEHHA, the listing is “based on formal identification by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), an authoritative body, that the chemical causes reproductive toxicity (developmental and male reproductive endpoints).” The chemical is used as a solvent for a variety of organic materials and was used historically in coffee decaffeination and the preparation of extracts from hops and spices. See OEHHA News Release, January 31, 2014. Issue 511
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has proposed adding a regulation to Title 27 of the California Code of Regulations to “clarify the procedure and criteria OEHHA uses to list and de-list chemicals via the ‘Labor Code’ listing mechanism of Proposition 65.” A public hearing on the proposal has been slated for March 21, 2014, and comments are requested by April 4. OEHHA maintains the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65). Chemicals may be added to the list through one of four ways, including those that have been identified by reference to certain subsections of the California Labor Code. While OEHHA has established regulations setting forth general criteria for listing chemicals via the other listing mechanisms, it has not previously done so for the Labor Code mechanism.…
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has issued a hazard identification document for six chemicals that will be reconsidered for listing as reproductive toxicants under Proposition 65. Used in epoxy resins or as plasticizers, the chemicals—n-butyl glycidyl ether, diglycidyl ether, phenyl glycidyl ether, methyl n-butyl ketone, methyl isopropyl ketone, and α-methyl styrene—were added to the list via the Labor Code mechanism. Changes to federal regulations affecting this listing mechanism have required that the chemicals be reconsidered. Public comments are requested by February 25, 2014, and the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee will discuss them during its March 19 meeting. Manufacturers of products containing chemicals determined to be known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity are required to provide warnings to consumers under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65). See OEHHA News Release, January 10, 2014. Issue…
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has added diisononyl phthalate—a plasticizer used in food contact materials—to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer. OEHHA’s Carcinogen Identification Committee determined that “the chemical was clearly shown, through scientifically valid testing according to generally accepted principles, to cause cancer.” The addition, made under the “state’s qualified expert” mechanism of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Prop. 65), takes effect December 20, 2013. OEHHA will next set a safe exposure level for the chemical. See OEHHA News Release, December 12, 2013; Bloomberg BNA Product Safety & Liability Reporter, December 13, 2013. Issue 508
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has issued a request for public comments on draft templates for tabulating epidemiology studies and data from animal studies for use by members of the agency’s Science Advisory Board Development and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee. Comments are requested by December 23, 2013. See OEHHA News Release, December 4, 2013. Meanwhile, during the December 5 meeting of OEHHA’s Carcinogen Identification Committee, diisononyl phthalate, a plasticizer used in food-contact materials, and butyl benzyl phthalate, a chemical used in food conveyor belts, were discussed as candidates for addition to the Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer. See Proposition 65 News, December 5, 2013.
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has changed the basis for listing 1,2-dibromo-3 chloropropane (DBCP), an agricultural fumigant that persists in groundwater despite being banned from use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1979. “Based on changes to certain federal regulations that affect the bases for the original listings, OEHHA has accordingly changed the bases for listing these chemicals,” according to the agency. DBCP was originally added to the Prop. 65 list of chemicals known to the state to cause reproductive toxicity in 1987 under the Labor Code, and its listing date will remain the same. Another chemical subject to the notice is ethylene oxide, which is used to make the raw material (PET) in plastic bottles. See OEHHA Press Release, November 21, 2013. Issue 505
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has issued a notice of intent “to list emissions from high-temperature unrefined rapeseed oil as known to the State to cause cancer under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986” (Prop. 65). The proposal is based on the 2010 cancer identification by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) for “emissions created by frying food in unrefined rapeseed oil [commonly known as canola oil] heated past its boiling point.” IARC apparently found that these emissions “cause increased incidence of malignant tumors in female rats and combined malignant and benign tumors in both sexes of the mouse.” Comments are requested by December 16, 2013. See OEHHA News Release, November 15, 2013.
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has issued the tentative agenda for the December 5, 2013, meeting of its Carcinogen Identification Committee, which identifies chemicals for addition to the Proposition 65 list when they have been “clearly shown, through scientifically valid testing according to generally accepted principles, to cause cancer.” Under consideration will be butyl benzyl phthalate, a chemical used in food conveyor belts, and diisononyl phthalate, a plasticizer used in food-contact materials. The meeting will be webcast. See OEHHA News Release, November 14, 2013.
