Policy Concentrates
Kristen Kulinowski will head the Chemical Safety Board as its “interim executive authority” following the resignation of chair Vanessa Allen Sutherland, according to a CSB statement. The board will now be down to three members, two short of the number set by law. “I am committed to ensuring that the CSB’s current investigations are completed in a timely and efficient manner and that the lessons learned are available to industry, workers, and members of the public,” Kulinowski said. The board currently has 10 investigations under way. A longtime American Chemical Society member, Kulinowski was a research Kulinowski staff member in the Science & Technology Policy Institute of the Institute for Defense Analyses before being appointed to CSB in 2015. Earlier, she spent 13 years at Rice University as executive director of the Center for Biological & Environmental Nanotechnology and director of the International Council on Nanotechnology. At CSB, she has focused her outreach efforts on laboratory safety and safe practices for welding and other “hot work” in the chemical industry. The U.S. president nominates and the Senate confirms CSB members and the chair. President Donald J. Trump has twice proposed eliminating CSB.—JEFF JOHNSON, C R E D I T: CBS ( KUL I NOWS KI ) ; @ EC _M I N I ST ER / TW I T T ER ( NE U MAY R )
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▸ Kulinowski to lead Chemical Safety Board
special to C&EN
CHEMICAL REGULATION
Reporting required for U.S. releases of nonylphenol ethoxylates Makers and users of a group of widely used nonionic surfactants found in some cleaning products and paints will have to report U.S. releases of these chemicals to EPA each year. The requirement applies to 13 nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs), says an EPA regulation released June 7. Short-chain NPEs are highly toxic to water-dwelling organisms, according to EPA. Longer-chain NPEs aren’t as hazardous, but they can degrade in the environment to short-chain NPEs and to nonylphenols, which are also highly toxic to aquatic life and suspected of disrupting hormones. HO O The regulation directs companies to 4-Nonylphenol diethoxylate report their annual quantities of NPE releases. That information will be made public under the nation’s right-to-know law starting in 2020. NPEs are used in industrial applications and consumer products as wetting agents, emulsifiers, surfactants, stabilizers, dispersants, and defoamers. EPA has not curtailed the use of NPEs, but retailers are forging ahead. Walmart and Target have told their suppliers to eliminate NPEs, among a handful of other substances, from household and personal care products they sell.—CHERYL HOGUE
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INDUSTRIAL SAFETY
and environment. She also lier this year amid concerns served as deputy counsel for about her views on climate environment and nuclear prochange and renewable energy. grams at the U.S. Department White is an outspoken skeptic of Energy under the George of climate change. Neumayr is W. Bush administration and as a much less controversial pick counsel to the assistant attorto lead CEQ and likely to win ney general for environment Senate confirmation. Before and natural resources at the joining CEQ, she spent nearly U.S. Department of Justice. a decade on Capitol Hill in Neumayr received her J.D. various positions with the Neumayr from the University of CaliforEnergy & Commerce Comnia Hastings College of the Law.—BRITT mittee in the House of Representatives, including deputy chief counsel, energy ERICKSON
PEOPLE
▸ White House picks environmental adviser President Donald J. Trump nominated Mary Neumayr on June 12 for a key environmental position in the White House—chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Neumayr has been serving as the top official at CEQ since joining as chief of staff in March 2017. Trump withdrew his first pick to head CEQ, Kathleen Hartnett White, ear-
BY THE NUMBERS
3 trillion Metric tons of ice lost from the Antarctic ice sheet from 1992 to 2017, according to an analysis in Nature (2018, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0179-y). This amount of ice corresponds to an 8-mm rise in sea level. JUNE 18, 2018 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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