EPA implements toughest restrictions yet on use of highly toxic chemical in paint stripper

(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 most often 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, according to the EPA.

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, one study said.

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 US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, can cause at least six types of cancer and can damage the nervous system, as well as the heart and organs such as the liver, kidneys and skin.

Under the Obama administration, the EPA proposed restricting most retail and workplace uses of the chemical in paint stripping. In 2019, 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 least 85 fatalities 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, according to the EPA, 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 Yale Cancer Center researcher 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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