Industrials Regulatory News and Trends - December 20, 2024

California amends Prop 65 short-form warnings. California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has announced long-expected new amendments to its Prop 65 short-form warning requirements. Among the changes: businesses will be required to add at least one chemical name to short-form warnings; businesses may choose to say “CA WARNING” or “CALIFORNIA WARNING” rather than “WARNING” on labels; short-form warnings will also apply to food products; and, for Internet and catalog sales, businesses must ensure that any Prop. 65 warnings are accessible both before purchase and before product exposure. While the regulation goes into effect January 1, 2025, it doesn’t apply to products manufactured and labeled before January 1, 2028, allowing for a three-year transition period. This means that products bearing the current short-form warnings may continue to be sold in California before and during the three-year transition period.

EPA ban on TCE and perc. The EPA on December 9 announced it has finalized risk management rules that, under the Toxic Substances Control Act, will ban wide use of two commonly used chemicals. The first, trichloroethylene, or TCE, has been used in furniture care and auto repair products, spot removers, cleaners, glues, and lubricants. All uses of TCE are now banned. The second chemical is perchloroethylene, or perc, which is now banned from all consumer uses. Perc was once widely used in automotive care and dry cleaning products. Use of perc will still be allowed in an array of industrial uses, with the caveat that strict rules must be put in place to protect workers. The new requirements pose hurdles for industry members, who will be tasked to implement alternatives and new safety protocols. Learn more about the practical implications of these rules in our alert.

FDA warns about lead contamination in certain imported cookware. On December 12, the FDA issued a warning letter to retailers and distributors of cookware warning that certain imported cooking pots may be leaching lead into food. The agency also issued an import alert for products from Rashko Baba Co. Ltd., a manufacturer of the cookware. The lead contamination was uncovered by researchers from the Public Health Department of Seattle and King County, which found the cookware – made from aluminum, brass, and aluminum alloys known as Hindalium/Hindolium or Indalium/Indolium – being sold under an array of brands: Harjee, Hamza, GSI, Economy, Imusa, Kyyte, Rashko, Casco, Tiantianxi, and Kitchen King, manufactured in Afghanistan, China, Columbia, El Salvador, India, Taiwan, and Thailand. Many of the products are aimed at immigrant consumers – the researchers identified traditional Indian appam pans, idli makers, and tadka pans among the contaminated cookware, as well as pressure cookers and an array of stovetop pots and pans. The implicated cookware, FDA says, is regarded as adulterated under 21 U.S.C. 342(a)(2)(C)(I); offering it for sale in interstate commerce is a prohibited act under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

New Jersey bill would require that packaging material be recyclable or compostable. The New Jersey state legislature is considering a bill that would require that, by 2034, all packaging material in the state be recyclable or compostable, and that would put in place an extended producer responsibility (EPR) program to strengthen and manage recycling and reduce solid waste. To set up the EPR, the bill would impose fees on manufacturers and distributors. EPR laws aim to make packaging producers responsible for the costs of managing waste and typically require producers to fund disposal efforts, often through a nonprofit producer responsibility organization (PRO), which producers are required to join. The bill would require that, by 2032, the amount of single-use packaging products used in New Jersey be reduced by 25 percent. By 2034, all packaging products used in the state would have to be compostable or recyclable; by 2036, the recycling rate of packaging products would have to be at least 65 percent. In 2025, regulatory milestones in EPR programs will go into effect in Colorado, Oregon, and California, with more such laws on the horizon. You may also enjoy the December issue of our monthly publication Horizon – ESG regulatory news and trends.

Washington state’s Cap-and-Invest Program: What comes next? Major emitters, utilities, manufacturers, and other stakeholders operating in Washington state are encouraged to take note of emerging regulations that will fully implement the state’s Cap-and-Invest Program as well as its Climate Commitment Act. Our alert tells you more.

Nippon Steel acquisition of U.S. Steel: decision expected soon. The Biden Administration is reportedly preparing to block Nippon Steel's $15 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) must provide its recommendation to President Joe Biden by December 23; the President then has 15 days to announce his decision. In recent days, media reports have indicated that CFIUS has struggled to reach consensus on the fate of the merger and that, whatever its recommendation, President Joe Biden intends to block the deal on national security grounds. Furthermore, President-elect Donald Trump reiterated on December 2 that upon taking office he would block the deal. Nippon Steel recently vowed to invest $1 billion in U.S. Steel's Mon Valley Works and $300 million in the Gary Works and in late November met with United SteelWorkers (USW) president David McCall in hopes of overcoming union resistance to the merger. It then announced that, should the deal be approved, it would give each U.S. Steel USW member a $5,000 bonus. On December 12, USW called that offer "attempted bribery." A union statement said, "This offer ultimately does nothing to change the stakes of the deal, the lasting damage it could do to our domestic steel industry, or the grave implications for our national and economic security." Nippon Steel continues to reiterate that it expects the deal to go through. See some of our earlier coverage of the proposed acquisition here and here.