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Those on the list may be interested to learn that Governmental Affairs submitted the ACS comment on EPA Docket No. EPA-HQ-OPPT-2020-0465 - Proposed Rule on Methylene Chloride (DCM) to EPA on Monday. In addition to the official comment submitted yesterday, the staff at the ACS Governmental Affairs office arranged a meeting on June 12 between Governmental Affairs, members from the ACS Committee on Chemical Safety (CCS), and EPA Staff. During the meeting we were able to learn more about the regulation as well as voice our specific concerns on how this regulation would negatively impact operations and research in academic laboratories. The meeting also helped to inform us what to highlight in the ACS comment.

The comment itself was crafted by Governmental Affairs with input from members of the Committee on Chemical Safety (who are all also members of CHAS) and ACS Staff from Safety Programs and The Green Chemistry Institute. The comment primarily focused on the potential impacts the regulation would have on discovery research in academic laboratories since other groups were focusing on how the regulation would impact the industrial sectors.

The comment has been posted on the CCS website under the Publications and Resources tab. It has also been forwarded to C&E News in the hope that they will deseminate it to the chemistry enterprise. You may read the comment submitted here.  Commenting on DCM is now closed, but the Perchloroethylene (PCE) Docket is still open for commenting.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Sammye
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