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 known to cause liver cancer and other health problems.
The EPA said its action will protect Americans from health risks while allowing certain commercial uses to continue with strong worker 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 Ban asbestosa carcinogen that kills tens of thousands of Americans each year but is still used 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 statement. The new 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 least 88 workers since 1980, according to the EPA. Long-term health effects include various types of cancer, including liver cancer and lung cancer, as well as 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 worker protections in place, said Michal Freedhoff, deputy administrator of EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
Methylene chloride will continue to be approved for the production of refrigerants as an alternative to other chemicals that produce greenhouse gases and contribute to climate change, Freedhoff said. It will also be approved for use 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 main lobbying group, called methylene chloride “a vital compound” that is used to make many products and goods that Americans rely on every day, including paint stripping, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and metal cleaning and degreasing.
An EPA proposal last year 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 concerned that the EPA has not fully assessed the rule’s impact on the domestic supply chain and could end up banning up to 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 remains widespread and continues to pose a significant and sometimes fatal danger to workers, the agency said. EPA’s final risk management rule requires companies to quickly phase out the manufacture, processing, and distribution of methylene chloride for all consumer uses and most industrial and commercial uses, including home renovation.
Consumer use will be phased out within one year and most industrial and commercial uses will be banned within two years.
Liz Hitchcock, director of a safer chemicals program for the advocacy group Toxic-Free Future, praised the 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 workers to continue to be exposed to the dangerous and deadly effects of methylene chloride.”
Consumers should pay attention to labels that indicate a product is free of methylene chloride, said the Toxic Free Group, which has published a list of paint and varnish strippers and removers sold by major U.S. retailers that do not contain methylene chloride .
Wendy Hartley, whose son Kevin died of methylene chloride poisoning after repairing a bathtub at work, called the 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” because of the EPA’s actions.