News & Events

• NAMC GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
  NAMC will hold its annual meeting on Wednesday, December 16, 2009, in Washington, DC. More details will be forthcoming.
  
  
• OSHA PROPOSED GHS IMPLEMENTATION RULE
  On September 29, 2009, OSHA issued a proposed rule in which it is proposing to amend its Hazard Communication Standard to incorporate GHS. Comments are due by December 29, 2009. The Federal Register notice is available online. OSHA is also expected to hold an informal public meeting on the issue as well.
  
  
• CALIFORNIA BIOMONITORING PROGRAM
  The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) recently posted a list of designated chemicals and a list of priority chemicals for the California Environmental Contaminant Biomonitoring Program (CECBP). The designated chemicals consist of those chemicals that are included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Biomonitoring Program, as well as additional chemicals, meeting certain criteria, that are recommended by the CECBP’s Scientific Guidance Panel (SGP). Designated chemicals are the pool of chemicals from which the highest priority chemicals are selected for biomonitoring. The designated chemical list includes a metals category with a number of metals. Of those, cadmium, lead, mercury, and arsenic are listed as priority chemicals. More information on the California biomonitoring program, including links to the designated and priority chemicals lists, is available at http://www.oehha.ca.gov/multimedia/biomon/.
  
  
• TCEQ Toxicology Development Support Document for Chromium
  The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Toxicology Division is accepting comments on a proposed Development Support Document (DSD) for chromium. The document reportedly covers “all compounds except hexavalent chromium, CAS Registry numbers trivalent chromium (16065-83-1); elemental chromium (7440-47-3).” Comments on the proposed DSD are due by July 9, 2009.
  
  
• EPA Releases Methodology for Risk-Based Prioritization Under ChAMP
  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a report on its methodology for setting risk-based prioritizations (RBP) under the Chemical Assessment and Management Program (ChAMP). According to the report, RBPs “are qualitative evaluations that indicate whether the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) considers a [high production volume (HPV)] chemical or chemical category as a low, medium, or high priority for further assessment or risk management activities.” Inorganic chemical, including metals, will eventually be evaluated under ChAMP.