Independent Women’s Forum: Why The Dietary Guidelines Fail To Make Americans Healthier — Center for Progress and Innovation Director Julie Gunlock talks to Dr. Richard Williams, CTS Board and former FDA Chief Social Scientist at the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, about the newly released federal dietary guidelines, why the field of nutrition science is dangerously flawed, why the new alcohol restrictions included in the DGAC are nonsense, and the future of innovation in food production. 

Legal Newsline: Expect ‘regulation as springboard for litigation’ during Biden presidency, top defense attorney says — Victor Schwartz, co-chair of Shook, Hardy & Bacon’s Public Policy Practice Group, foresees an unprecedented role for trial lawyers in the regulatory aspirations of federal agencies invigorated under a Joe Biden presidency. As example, Schwartz said a judge could broaden the law of nuisance, “a malleable tort,” historically used against offending actions like polluting waterways, to target a product.

The Sun: OC water districts file massive lawsuit over PFAS contaminants — Eleven Orange County water agencies have joined in a lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from DuPont, 3M and others over the use and disposal of PFAS chemicals. A study released in April measured for 12 PFAS compounds at 29 locations near the Santa Ana River and confirmed the presence of many of those compounds upstream of Orange County. Some water officials expect that treatment systems to remove the PFAS chemicals at the upstream wastewater plants will eventually be developed. While the focus now is on just two compounds, PFOA and PFOS, water officials expect the state Division of Drinking Water will soon add seven additional PFAS compounds to the list.

J.D. Supra: What Uses of PFAS Are “Essential” — After a recent study from Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts suggested that there is sufficient concern for their management as a chemical class, and for all “non-essential” uses of PFAS to be phased out, some legal experts believe their management as a chemical class is almost inevitable. Manufacturers users, they recommend, should start building the case their use of PFAS chemicals is indeed “essential.”

Times Union: Cuomo signs PFAS ban in food packaging — Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday week signed a bill to ban PFAS compounds from food packaging that is commonly found in items ranging from pizza boxes to milk cartons and pastry bags, as well as being used in wrappings for meat and fish. Food packaging PFASs are short-chain with fewer carbon atoms, as opposed to the long-chain variety used in firefighting foams and Teflon, but researchers still believe they have toxic properties. The bill signing follows another PFAS decision in which Cuomo approved legislation to essentially ban the incineration of firefighting foam that contains the chemical.