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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
EPA implements toughest restrictions yet on use of highly toxic | |
chemical in paint stripper | |
By Jen Christensen, CNN | |
Updated: | |
1:00 PM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
The US Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule Tuesday that | |
will end many uses of the highly toxic, cancer-causing solvent | |
methylene chloride. The chemical will still be available for certain | |
purposes, but with new guidelines meant to keep workers safe. | |
Activists have been pushing for such regulations for decades, and it is | |
one of several dangerous chemicals the Biden administration has banned | |
or restricted just this year. | |
Methylene chloride, which is also called dichloromethane, is a volatile | |
industrial solvent that is used in commercial paint strippers. It is | |
also used in metal degreasers, aerosols, adhesives, paint and coating | |
products, and in the manufacturing of some pharmaceuticals, | |
There are risks for anyone who handles methylene chloride. The chemical | |
is dangerous to humans when they breathe in its fumes, or when it comes | |
into contact with the skin. Even a tablespoon of methylene chloride can | |
kill, | |
Fumes from the chemical can build up, particularly when someone is | |
working in a small space, and can leave someone feeling dizzy or with | |
numb limbs. At high doses, it can switch off the part of the brain that | |
controls breathing. People can quickly become unconscious or have a | |
heart attack and die. | |
Long-term exposure, the says, can and can damage the , as well as the | |
heart and organs such as the liver, kidneys and skin. | |
Under the , the EPA proposed restricting most retail and workplace uses | |
of the chemical in paint stripping. , under the Trump administration, | |
the EPA only banned consumer sales of paint strippers and coating | |
removal products that used the chemical, allowing it to be used in | |
other consumer products and in all occupational uses. | |
At the time the 2019 restriction was passed, the EPA said it was | |
necessary because of “acute fatalities” after people were exposed | |
to the chemical. However, most deaths happened on the job, where the | |
Trump administration’s EPA had set no restrictions. Between 1980 to | |
2018, a study found at directly related to the chemical; the majority | |
of deaths happened at work. | |
Without additional restrictions, about 260 million pounds of methylene | |
chloride is still used each year in the United States, , and experts | |
say in many cases there are alternative chemicals that can be used. | |
Restrictions announced on Tuesday go much further than what the Obama | |
and Trump administration had considered. The Trump administration had | |
done a risk evaluation of more than 50 uses of the chemical, but only | |
acted on the one for consumers. The EPA said the finalized rule bans | |
the chemical in paint strippers in occupational uses, consumer use will | |
be phased out within a year, and most industrial and commercial uses | |
will be banned within two years. | |
Methylene chloride will still be needed to make refrigerants, electric | |
vehicle batteries, and for what the EPA called “critical military and | |
other federal uses.” Since the chemical won’t completely disappear | |
from the workplace, the rule also comes with what Michal Ilana | |
Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety | |
and Pollution Prevention at the EPA, called a “first of its kind” | |
strong worker chemical protection program. | |
“So it’s a much stronger action because it applies to the full | |
suite of things methylene chloride is made and used for,” Freedhoff� | |
said in a news conference. | |
When methylene chloride is allowed, Freedhoff said, there will need to | |
be some baseline assessment of how the chemical is used, and companies | |
will be encouraged to find alternatives as much as possible and to also | |
put in place some engineering controls to restrict its use. Companies | |
will also need to monitor worker use, as well as provide worker | |
training and personal protective equipment for those exposed to the | |
chemical. | |
The news that there were workplace protections in the rule pleased | |
union leaders. | |
“We applaud the EPA for its final rule to protect all workers from | |
unreasonable risk,” Dave McCall, the international president of the | |
United Steelworkers, said. “Our union and the entire labor movement | |
looks forward to working with the EPA on implementation of this | |
rule.” | |
Sarah Vogel, senior vice president for Healthy Communities at the | |
Environmental Defense Fund, said that her organization will continue to | |
work toward stronger protections for communities living near chemical | |
production and use sites. Vogel said her organization had been | |
disappointed that the Trump administration’s ban on this chemical | |
hadn’t gone far enough. | |
“Today’s announcement of a ban on many of the workplace uses of | |
methylene chloride based paint strippers, in addition to all the | |
consumer uses, is long overdue,” Vogel said on the EPA news call. | |
Wendy Hartley has been advocating for a ban since her 21-year-old son, | |
Kevin, died after working to refinish a bathtub with the chemical while | |
at work in 2017. She said she knew more had to be done after the | |
incremental 2019 ban. | |
“Science has told use for decades about the dangers of methylene | |
chloride,” Hartley said. “When I spoke with assistant administrator | |
Freedhoff I was in tears because this ban was finally going to | |
happen.” | |
In the 1800s, doctors initially used the chemical as an anesthetic, and | |
after World War II, manufactures and retailers started using it widely. | |
But from the beginning, people knew it was dangerous. Doctors | |
eventually stopped using methylene chloride because it was difficult to | |
get the dose right, and if they didn’t, patients would die. In the | |
US, chemical makers don’t have to prove the products are safe before | |
introducing them to the market. The burden is to show harm, rather than | |
proving chemicals to be safe from the outset. | |
“It then can be challenging to have regulations keep pace with the | |
latest science,” said Dr. Nicole Deziel, a and associate professor of | |
epidemiology environmental health sciences at Yale School of Public | |
Health. The Biden administration has introduced more regulations on | |
chemicals recently, like on asbestos and PFAS in drinking water, as | |
well as methylene chloride, but companies had already started phasing | |
out many uses of these dangerous chemicals. | |
“Some of these are a bit overdue,” Deziel said. | |
The new rule from the EPA also excludes uses that are regulated | |
elsewhere, so restrictions on methylene chloride used in the food | |
industry, pesticides and in pharmaceuticals are beyond the scope of | |
what the EPA can regulate, Freeholder said. | |
Methylene chloride is used to make decaffeinated coffee and tea, for | |
example, and those uses would not fall under this rule, the EPA said. | |
Any additional restrictions will need to come from other agencies, such | |
as the US Food and Drug Administration, which regulates foods and | |
drugs. | |
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