The chemical industry broadly supported an overhaul of the nation's chemical oversight laws passed last year.
But numerous groups recently complained about specific aspects of the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act as the government continues to implement it.
Chemical Watch reports that the Commerce Department, in response an executive order signed by President Trump in January, asked for comments from manufacturers about burdens "from federal permitting and regulatory requirements."
Industry group the American Chemistry Council reportedly told the agency that the new program to evaluate new chemicals was one of its top concerns.
The new law requires the Environmental Protection Agency to make affirmative safety decisions for new chemicals, which helped curb the amount of new substances approved by the regulators and create a backlog of applications for new chemicals.
The American Wood Council warned of "overly conservative" risk assessments under the revised law, and the Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance said that existing regulations protect the public from three specific chemicals -- trichloroethylene, methylene chloride and N-methylpyrrolidone — that face further restrictions.
3M and Valero were among the individual companies respond to the Commerce Department inquiry. The Minnesota manufacturing giant, CW reports, said that the chemical application backlog amounted to a "powerful disincentive to manufacture new chemicals in the U.S."
Other groups, meanwhile, identified a range of additional issues related to chemical regulations, from overlapping agency requirements to exposure and emissions standards to the composition of the EPA Science Advisory Board.
