The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken two separate actions on per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS), both being part of its PFAS strategic roadmap, which aims to implement legislation by Q4 to reduce and destroy PFAS contamination in water, air and soil.

Under the National Primary Drinking Water Regulation, the agency has laid down new standards with legally enforceable maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) on five individual PFAS. These are more stringent than previously mooted limits:

The first joint Europe-wide assessment of the drivers and impact of chemical pollution by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has concluded that, despite progress in some areas, “more work is still needed to reduce the impact of harmful substances on human health and the environment”. Key findings include:

* The transition towards safer and more sustainable chemicals is progressing in some areas but just getting started in others

Lubrizol has opened a new Global Capability Centre (GCC) in Pune, India, as “a strategic hub to accelerate its growth in the region and enable closer collaboration for its customers and employees”. It has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding to renew its strategic partnership with Proya Cosmetics in China.

International Process Plants (IPP), which buys and sells industrial plants and equipment, has acquired Henkel’s detergent plant in Lomazzo, Italy, in partnership with Maynards, a specialist in industrial liquidation auction services. The plant, which sits on a 4.4-hectare site with 43,000 m² of building space, had been scheduled for closure, despite the Lombardy Region’s attempts to work with Henkel to save it.

Chemours has completed its planned procedures with respect to an internal review that it first announced on 29 February. This essentially confirmed the details revealed in an interim report on 7 March. More will be published in the compensation discussion and analysis in the proxy statement for the 2024 annual meeting.

Symrise and India’s Virchow Group have agreed to make personal care ingredients from the Symrise portfolio through a new joint venture called Vizag Care Ingredients, beginning within 1H. This will be based on Virchow’s synthetic chemistry capabilities for API manufacture.

Symrise owns a majority in the new entity, which is based in Visakhapatnam and has one local chemical manufacturing site, enabling it to back-integrate into raw materials and form a resilient global value chain. Symrise will market the resulting products.

EuroAPI has suspended all API production at its site in Brindisi, Italy, until further notice. This followed an internal audit in which “quality control deficiencies due to potential local misconduct” were identified. These are being further investigated.