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The Top-Ten Lower Court Decisions on Environmental Law

Legal Planet

In this case, the Fifth Circuit overturned a ban on asbestos and in the process made an entire federal statute, the Toxic Substances Control Act, virtually inoperative. What was so notable about this case was that the court applied the doctrine to limit water rights, which are generally sacrosanct in Western states.

Law 227
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Supreme Court Sidelines Science, Threatens Public Health: These Rules-in-Progress Show What’s at Stake

Union of Concerned Scientists

If governments bypass or undermine science and public comments in policy making, our health could be in jeopardy from increased pollution, cases of foodborne illnesses, politically-driven medicine approvals or disapprovals, and more. This is a major federal law that governs if a chemical will be regulated, limited, or even banned.

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EPA Provides Technical Support for Companies Submitting New Chemical Data

Nanotech

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of new resources intended to help companies with the requirements described in EPAs December 2024 final rule governing the review of new chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

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GAO Recommends EPA’s New Chemicals Program Develop a Systematic Process to Manage and Assess Performance Better

Nanotech

Government Accountability Office (GAO) publicly released a report entitled New Chemicals Program: EPA Needs a Systematic Process to Better Manage and Assess Performance on January 22, 2025. Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) implementation of its Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) New Chemicals Program.

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EPA’s New PFAS Definition Will Make it Harder to Protect the Public

Union of Concerned Scientists

This is not just conjecture; this situation happened before with PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in the 1970s and 1980s—highly toxic chemicals that were banned by the EPA in 1979. Dow’s argument was that the ban did not apply because what they were manufacturing could not be defined as PCBs (even though they were).

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Ongoing Battle to Keep Toxic Chemicals at Bay

Circle of Blue

Government Accountability Office report in September found that one-in-five water systems across six states had unsafe levels of PFOA and PFOS. But efforts to add new pollutants to the list haven’t kept pace with our growing understanding of the risks from substances that weren’t on regulators’ radar 50 years ago, including PFAS.

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Microplastics in the Lungs: The Next Asbestos or Are We Just Catastrophizing?

Law and Environment

Two developments this week got me thinking about how our government deals – or fails to deal – with risk. EPA’s authority for doing so is the Toxic Substances Control Act which provides that: . First, EPA proposed to ban the manufacture (including import) of chrysotile asbestos.