The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that it had decided to ban consumer use Methylene chloridea chemical commonly used as a paint stripper but is understood to cause liver cancer and other health problems.
The EPA said its motion will protect Americans from health risks while allowing certain industrial uses to proceed with strong employee protections.
The methylene chloride ban rule is the second risk management rule enacted in a landmark move by President Joe Biden’s administration 2016 Amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act. The first was a promotion last month in asbestosa carcinogen that kills tens of 1000’s of Americans every year but remains to be utilized in some chlorine bleaches, brake pads and other products.
“Exposure to methylene chloride has devastated families across the country for too long, including some who have seen their loved ones go to work and never come home.” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a press release. The recent rule, he said, “ends unsafe methylene chloride practices and implements the greatest possible worker protections for the few remaining industrial uses to ensure that no one in this country is at risk from this dangerous chemical.”
Methylene chloride, also called dichloromethane, is a colorless liquid that emits a toxic vapor that has killed at the very least 88 staff since 1980, based on the EPA. Long-term health effects include various forms of cancer, including liver cancer and lung cancer, in addition to damage to the nervous, immune and reproductive systems.
The EPA rule would ban all consumer uses but allow certain “critical” uses in military and industrial processing, with employee protections in place, said Michal Freedhoff, deputy administrator of EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
Methylene chloride will proceed to be approved for the production of refrigerants as a substitute for other chemicals that produce greenhouse gases and contribute to climate change, Freedhoff said. It will even be approved to be used in electric vehicle batteries and for critical military functions.
“The uses that we believe can continue safely are (all) in demanding industrial environments, and in some cases there are no real substitutes,” Freedhoff said.
The chemical industry has argued that the EPA overstated the risks of methylene chloride and that adequate safeguards have mitigated the health risks.
The American Chemistry Council, the industry’s essential lobbying group, called methylene chloride “a vital compound” that’s used to make many products and goods that Americans depend on day by day, including paint stripping, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and metal cleansing and degreasing.
An EPA proposal last 12 months could create “regulatory uncertainty and confusion” with existing exposure limits set by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the group said.
The chemicals council also said it is worried that the EPA has not fully assessed the rule’s impact on the domestic supply chain and will find yourself banning as much as half of all end uses subject to regulation under the Toxic Substances Control Act.
Although the EPA banned a consumer from using methylene chloride in 2019, use of the chemical stays widespread and continues to pose a major and sometimes fatal danger to staff, the agency said. EPA’s final risk management rule requires corporations to quickly phase out the manufacture, processing, and distribution of methylene chloride for all consumer uses and most industrial and industrial uses, including home renovation.
Consumer use can be phased out inside one 12 months and most industrial and industrial uses can be banned inside two years.
Liz Hitchcock, director of a safer chemicals program for the advocacy group Toxic-Free Future, praised the brand new rule but added: “While we are pleased that today’s rule bans all consumer and most commercial uses, we are concerned that it limits them.” The scope will allow too many staff to proceed to be exposed to the damaging and deadly effects of methylene chloride.”
Consumers should concentrate to labels that indicate a product is freed from methylene chloride, said the Toxic Free Group, which has published an inventory of paint and polish strippers and removers sold by major U.S. retailers that don’t contain methylene chloride .
Wendy Hartley, whose son Kevin died of methylene chloride poisoning after repairing a tub at work, called the brand new rule “a major step in protecting vulnerable workers.”
Kevin Hartley, 21, of Tennessee, died in 2017. He was an organ donor, Wendy Hartley said, adding that “Kevin’s death will continue to save lives” due to EPA’s actions.
