COGR, representing over 230 U.S. research institutions, submitted comments to the EPA regarding compliance date extensions for regulations on methylene chloride under TSCA. While supporting the 18-month extension, COGR questions the legal foundation for the underlying regulations, noting that the executive orders justifying them have since been revoked, and highlights that existing OSHA standards already address workplace safety for methylene chloride, making the EPA's new rule duplicative and potentially conflicting. COGR argues that academic research laboratories operate on a non-industrial scale with sufficient safety protocols, rendering the additional EPA regulations excessive, and urges the EPA to either exempt academic research settings or rescind the regulation in favor of sole reliance on OSHA standards.
Kristin West
Kristin (Kris) West is the Director of the Research Ethics and Compliance Committee at COGR.
