From the US Department of Labor:

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has revised its acetylene standard. A final rule replaces references to outdated industry standards with updated references reflecting current industry practices.

The revised standard requires that in-plant transfer, handling, storage and use of acetylene cylinders comply with Compressed Gas Association Pamphlet G-1-2003, titled Acetylene. The revised standard also updates references for the provisions addressing piping systems, as well as acetylene generators and filling acetylene cylinders.

Click on the links for more information.

Relevant Nexreg Compliance Links: CPSC compliance, OSHA MSDS authoring, MSDS authoring

From the Bureau Veritas Group:

The CPSC Commissioners have issued a draft statement of policy related to the testing and certification requirements under section 102 of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). This draft guidance document includes information on a reasonable testing program, frequency of testing, and component part testing. It also includes product safety rules that must be provided on a general conformity certificate (GCC), along with children’s product safety rules.

The document is intended to provide interim guidance until a final regulation is issued.  Note: The CPSC will hold a public workshop to discuss this policy on December 10 and 11. Comments on the statement of policy are due to the Commission by January 11, 2010.

**For non-children’s products, manufacturers should use their best judgment in regards to a reasonable testing program. The Commission has provided a list of generic criteria for a reasonable testing program to be followed, at a minimum, including remedial action plans, documentation of the testing program and how it is implemented.
**Third-Party Testing for children’s products must be performed periodically or when a material change takes place, such as a change in a material supplier or a change that may affect testing results (e.g., color of a product or type of plastic used).

For further information the draft statement of policy is available here: Guidance Document: Testing and Certification Requirements Under The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008

Relevant Nexreg Compliance Links: CPSC compliance, OSHA MSDS authoring, MSDS authoring

The California EPA’s OEHHA is requesting information as to whether the chemicals clodinafop-propargyl, diclofop-methyl and epoxiconazole meet the criteria for listing as cancer causing under Proposition 65. OEHHA is requesting public comment concerning whether these chemicals meet the criteria set forth in the Proposition 65 regulations for authoritative bodies listings.

After reviewing all comments received, OEHHA will determine whether clodinafop-propargyl, diclofop-methyl and epoxiconazole meet the regulatory criteria for administrative listing. For chemicals determined to meet the listing criteria, OEHHA will publish a Notice of Intent to List. In order to be considered, OEHHA must receive comments by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 12, 2010.

For more information or to submit a comment to the OEHHA please see the following article: Request for Relevant Information on Chemicals Being Considered for Listing by the Authoritative Bodies Mechanism: Clodinafop-Propargyl, Diclofop-Methyl, and Epoxiconazole

Relevant Nexreg Compliance Links: CPSC compliance, OSHA MSDS authoring, MSDS authoring

From The Independent:

A new environmental award will be launched with some of the biggest corporations and lobbying outfits in the world in contention for the top prize. But the winner will have nothing to celebrate. The inaugural Angry Mermaid award, inspired by Denmark’s famous Little Mermaid statue, will go to the organisation “doing the most to sabotage effective action on climate change” in the run-up to climate change talks in Copenhagen next month. The winner of the Angry Mermaid will be announced at a ceremony in Copenhagen on 15 December…

Click on the links for more information.

Relevant Nexreg Compliance Links: REACH compliance, EU SDS authoring, SDS authoring

From Health Canada:

The innovative and rapidly evolving nature of cosmetics, together with globalization, has prompted Health Canada to consider ways of modernizing Canada’s Cosmetic Regulations. The modernization of the Food and Drugs Act, including the Cosmetic Regulations, have been identified as action items under the Government of Canada’s Food and Consumer Safety Action Plan.

This survey represents the first phase of a multi-phase consultation with stakeholders, including industry representatives, members of the general public and not-for-profit/non-government groups. The feedback obtained will be analysed and carefully considered by Health Canada in the formulation of potential changes and modernization concerning the way in which cosmetics are regulated. In the longer term, there will be additional consultation for the development of a modernized regulatory framework for cosmetics, including a final consultation on the fully developed framework.

For more information, to make a comment by email, or to take the online survey, click on the link above.

Relevant Nexreg Compliance Links: CCCR compliance, WHMIS MSDS authoring, MSDS authoring

From The Haaretz:

…In Europe the nonprofit Antidote organization, headed by an Israeli, Dr. Andre Menache, has embarked on a public campaign to ban use of BPA. Antidote, which engages mainly in research concerning public health, has appealed to the president of the European Parliament, Prof. Jerzy Buzek, with a request to examine the risks inherent in the substance.

A year ago, the European Union defined a threshold level at which exposure to BPA is harmless. However, Menache argues that the risk assessment process did not take into account daily exposure to the substance and cannot be relied upon for determining risks.

In Israel to date no government restrictions have been imposed on products with BPA. “There is uncertainty as to the affects of low-level exposure to it,” the Health Ministry stated last week. “However, a panel of public health services experts at the ministry will examine ways of decreasing babies’ and young children’s exposure to it…”

Click on the links for more information.

Relevant Nexreg Compliance Links: REACH compliance, EU SDS authoring, SDS authoring

From PR Newswire:

A poll conducted in August by Lake Research Partners found Americans very concerned with how chemicals are regulated for consumer use in the U.S. The findings come as overhaul of the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)…

“Voters across almost all demographic and political groups said that regulations on chemicals were not strong enough,” said pollster Celinda Lake. “People definitely are not confident about how chemicals are currently regulated, but they’re ready to give the EPA authority to protect consumers.”

“The public is aware of a growing body of science linking common chemicals to chronic diseases and they’re waking up to the fact that the existing law isn’t working,” says Andy Igrejas, director of the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition. “Americans are doing their best to shop smart, but we can’t protect our families without help, and without strong reforms to put common sense limits on toxic chemicals.”

The poll was commissioned by the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition…

Click on the above link for more information.

Relevant Nexreg Compliance Links: CPSC compliance, OSHA MSDS authoring, MSDS authoring

From The New York Times:

Consumer Reports magazine tested an array of brand-name canned foods for a report in its December issue and found BPA [Bisphenol A] in almost all of them…

…Steven Hentges of the American Chemistry Council dismissed the testing, noting that Americans absorb quantities of BPA at levels that government regulators have found to be safe. Mr. Hentges also pointed to a new study indicating that BPA exposure did not cause abnormalities in the reproductive health of rats.

But more than 200 other studies have shown links between low doses of BPA and adverse health effects, according to the Breast Cancer Fund, which is trying to ban the chemical from food and beverage containers.

Last year, Canada became the first country to conclude that BPA can be hazardous to humans, and Massachusetts issued a public health advisory in August warning against any exposure to BPA by pregnant or breast-feeding women or by children under the age of 2.

Click on the links for more information.

Relevant Nexreg Compliance Links: CPSC compliance, OSHA MSDS authoring, MSDS authoring

From Environmental Working Group:

The topic of human exposures to chemical contaminants and the need to overhaul the federal government’s approach to toxics regulation was again on the mind of the nation’s top environmental official in remarks she made last weekend in Philadelphia. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson has now delivered three speeches in less than two months calling for reform of the failed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), each time singling out kids’ health as her driving force. That’s three more than the last two administrators combined…

Click on the links for more information.

Relevant Nexreg Compliance Links: CPSC compliance, OSHA MSDS authoring, MSDS authoring

From Environmental Health News:

Although the amount of lead in vinegar is small, experts say regularly consuming it may pose a risk, particularly to children. Eating one tablespoon a day of some balsamic or red wine vinegars can raise a young child’s lead level by more than 30 percent. Aged vinegars … contain more lead than the quicker brewed, less expensive kinds. For three imported varieties tested in 2002, people who eat one tablespoon per day would be exposed to seven to 10 times the maximum daily level of lead set by California.

One of the oldest known contaminants in the world, lead can damage people’s neurological systems, particularly children’s developing brains. Even low levels can reduce a child’s IQ or trigger learning and behavioral disorders, scientific studies show. Lead also is a carcinogen, and in adults, it is linked to cardiovascular, kidney and immune system effects.

The heavy metal is so toxic and persistent in the body that there is no known threshold below which adverse effects do not occur, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Under Prop. 65, the state’s maximum allowable daily level for lead is 0.5 micrograms per day. Based on that, the Environmental Law Foundation calculated that vinegars could contain no more than 34 parts per billion. The top three tested in 2002 contained 307 ppb, 276 ppb and 237 ppb. They don’t appear to be available for sale now.

Click on the link to read the entire report or see a list of vinegars that do not violate California’s Prop. 65 limits for lead.

Relevant Nexreg Compliance Links: CPSC compliance, OSHA MSDS authoring, MSDS authoring