Short Takes – 10-10-25

Carbon Tetrachloride (CTC); Regulation Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA); Request for Comment. Federal Register EPA notice. Summary: “he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) is seeking public comment to inform its reconsideration of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) risk management rule for carbon tetrachloride [link added] (CTC). As promulgated in December 2024, the CTC risk management action addressed the unreasonable risk of injury to health presented by CTC under its conditions of use by requiring various workplace exposure controls for most conditions of use, prohibiting certain industrial and commercial uses, and establishing other requirements. This request for public comment follows the filing of several legal challenges to the rule in 2025, and EPA's determination that the CTC risk management rule under TSCA should be reconsidered through further rulemaking. EPA intends to consider information received in response to this public comment solicitation, and other reasonably available information, to inform the development of any proposed rule to amend the CTC regulation as appropriate.” Comments due: November 10^th, 2025.

This spooky season...The Voltage Oscillations Return. LinkedIn.com article. Pull quote: “REE explicitly mentioning small-scale and residential PV inverters as part of its rationale to prevent another blackout is quite significant. It is also important from a cybersecurity perspective, because at this point it is impossible not to consider these assets as a potential attack vector capable of causing major consequences in the grid.”

Pressure points: 5 ways the shutdown could end. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “The central, defining factor of any shutdown is the scaling back of federal services and the siloing of hundreds of thousands of federal employees. Some of those workers are deemed “essential,” meaning they still have to come to work, while others are furloughed, meaning they’ll stay at home. But both groups share the unenviable position of not being paid until the government reopens.”

America Can’t Afford Chemical Security Gaps. HSToday.us article. Pull quote: “Because our sector is so tightly woven into both the economy and national infrastructure, it requires a security threat response system that matches its unique risks. Unlike many industries, chemicals are dual-use by nature—vital for industry, but dangerous if stolen, diverted, or sabotaged. That is why security measures cannot be an afterthought; they must stand alongside safety programs as a national priority.”

Floating photocatalyst turns sunlight into radicals that disinfect water in minutes. ChemistryWorld.com article. Pull quote: “When highly contaminated water covered with the film was exposed to low light intensity (10mW/cm2), the photocatalyst killed 99% of Escherichia coli within 20 minutes and eradicated all the bacteria in half an hour. In just 40 minutes, a 10-litre sample of water, teeming with up to 20,000 bacterial colonies per millilitre, was rendered safe, meeting the World Health Organization’s safe standards for drinking water. It also killed Staphylococcus aureus within 25 minutes, showing broad spectrum capabilities.”

This company is planning a lithium empire from the shores of the Great Salt Lake. TechnologyReview.com article. Pull quote: “Pumped uphill, the lake water passes through a series of filters to remove solids until it ends up in a vessel filled with the company’s specially designed ceramic beads, made from a patented material that attracts lithium ions from the water. Once saturated, the beads are put through an acid wash to remove the lithium. The remaining brine is then repeatedly tested and, once deemed safe to release back into the lake, pumped back down to the shore through an outgoing tube in the hose. The lithium solution, meanwhile, is stockpiled in tanks on site before shipping off to a processing plant to be turned into battery-grade lithium carbonate, which is a white powder.”

China confirms solar panel projects are irreversibly changing desert ecosystems. GlassAlmanac.com article. Pull quote: “A team studying one of the largest photovoltaic parks in China, the Gonghe project in the Talatan Desert, found a striking difference between what was happening under the panels and what lay just beyond. They used a detailed framework measuring dozens of indicators—everything from soil chemistry to microbial life—and discovered that the micro-environment beneath the panels was noticeably healthier. The reasons track with physics: shade cools the surface and slows evaporation, letting scarce soil moisture linger longer; field experiments in western China report measurable soil-moisture gains beneath shaded arrays.”