Chemical Facility Security News: Short Takes

Friday, November 14, 2025

Short Takes – 11-14-25

Extension of Postponement of Effectiveness for Certain Provisions of Trichloroethylene (TCE); Regulation Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Federal Register EPA postponement extension notice. Summary: “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) is extending the postponement of the effectiveness of certain regulatory provisions of the final rule entitled “Trichloroethylene (TCE); Regulation Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)” for an additional 90 days. Specifically, this postponement applies to the conditions imposed on the uses with TSCA section 6(g) exemptions.”

Tiny robots swim through blood, deliver drugs — and then dissolve. Nature.com article. Pull quote: “In trials in the brains of pigs and sheep, the team showed that they could use a catheter to insert the bots, before making them roll along the edges of blood vessels, swim against the flow or navigate with the stream at speeds as fast as 40 centimetres per second. They used X-ray images to observe and manoeuvre the bots in real time with millimetre-precision. In trials in pigs, the team showed that in more than 95% of cases, the drugs were delivered to the correct location.”

The US government shutdown is over: what’s next for scientists. Nature.com article. Pull quote: “At the US National Science Foundation (NSF), for example, more than 300 grant-review meetings will need to be rescheduled. Each grant-review panel consists of about six to ten researchers, so rescheduling all of the panels before the end of the year would be ‘miraculous’, says an NSF programme officer who requested anonymity out of concerns about retaliation for speaking without authorization. The delay in reviewing will almost certainly lead to a delay in getting grants out the door, they say. (After requesting comment from the NSF on 12 November, Nature received an automated response that the agency is not answering emails during the shutdown.)”

The U.S. Might Lose Its Measles-Free Status Soon. ScientificAmerican.com article. Pull quote: “Canada has likely already passed that milestone; the country has seen a single outbreak of more than 5,100 measles cases since October 2024, according to its health data. The U.S. is also on shaky ground. A 762-case outbreak in West Texas that started in late January 2025 was declared over on August 18. But health officials are investigating ongoing outbreaks in South Carolina and Utah. If the investigation can link those outbreaks to the original cases in Texas, and if health authorities can’t bring them under control before January 2026, the U.S. may lose its measles elimination status as well.”

This flu season looks grim as H3N2 emerges with mutations. ArsTechnica.com article. Pull quote: “The bleak outlook is driven by a new strain of H3N2, which emerged over the summer (at the end of the Southern Hemisphere’s season) sporting several mutations. Those changes are not enough to spark the direst of circumstances—a deadly pandemic—but they could help the virus dodge immune responses, resulting in an outsize number of severe illnesses that could put a significant strain on hospitals and clinics.”

The next shutdown threat is around the corner. Politico.com article. Pull quote: “If lawmakers don’t figure it all out by the new January deadline, Congress risks another partial shutdown or running most of the federal government on what are essentially two-year-old budgets. Some Democrats are already hinting they are willing to shut down the government again without a deal on Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies that expire at the end of this year.”

What to Know as the Government Reopens. WSJ.com article. Pull quote: “Once they return, the workers will have to play catch-up. “All of their work will have been piling up while they’ve been gone, and it’s going to be just a nightmare trying to dig through over 40 days of things that have piled up on them,” said Max Stier, the president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service. “It’s going to be a mess.””

Ghosts of the Road: What the Failed War on IEDs Means for Drones. WarOnTheRocks.com article. Pull quote: “Listening to today’s military and industry discussions on counter-drone strategies, it feels like déjà vu. As the Army’s chief technology officer warned in a recent War on the Rocks podcast episode focused on the Army’s counter-drone initiatives, “IEDs fly now, and they fly at 100 miles an hour.” The current counter-drone strategy borrows heavily from the counter–IED three-pillar playbook: attack the network, defeat the device, and prepare the force. Yet, if the counter-IED campaign ended in strategic defeat, is it wise to replicate its framework for counter-drone operations? To answer this question, the U.S. armed forces should first identify how drones differ from improvised explosives and determine whether a proactive or reactive approach best fits the threat and how drones interact with current military missions.”

Methanol poisoning: the chemistry behind how a toxic alcohol gets into drinks. ChemistryWorld.com article. Pull quote: “Unintentional methanol contamination is more likely to occur in traditionally fermented alcoholic beverages. Here, alcoholic drinks are made using fruits – such as grapes and berries – that are high in pectin, a naturally occurring sugar found in the cell wall of most plants. Certain yeasts, bacteria and fungi can metabolise pectin into pectic acid and methanol, thanks to the enzyme pectin esterase. Improper sterilisation of equipment or the deliberate use of wild yeast can introduce these esterase-producing microbes into the brewing process. Such fruits are frequently fermented to produce higher percentage alcohols, such as palm or plum wine, further increasing the risk of a higher methanol percentage.”