Some commercial work with the paint stripper will continue, but workers will need special protection to handle the chemical compound.FILE - Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael Regan speaks at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, in Greensboro, N.C., April 14, 2022. The EPA is designating some toxic industrial compounds used in cookware, carpets and firefighting foams as hazardous substances under the so-called Superfund law.
“Exposure to methylene chloride has devastated families across this country for too long, including some who saw loved ones go to work and never come home,” said in a statement. The new rule , he said, “brings an end to unsafe methylene chloride practices and implements the strongest worker protections possible for the few remaining industrial uses, ensuring no one in this country is put in harm’s way by this dangerous chemical.
Methylene chloride will continue to be allowed to make refrigerants as an alternative to other chemicals that produce greenhouse gases and contribute to climate change, Freedhoff said. It also will be allowed for use in electric vehicle batteries and for critical military functions. The American Chemistry Council, the industry's top lobbying group, called methylene chloride “an essential compound" used to make many products and goods Americans rely on every day, including paint stripping, pharmaceutical manufacturing and metal cleaning and degreasing.
While the EPA banned one consumer use of methylene chloride in 2019, use of the chemical has remained widespread and continues to pose significant and sometimes fatal danger to workers, the agency said. The EPA’s final risk management rule requires companies to rapidly phase down manufacturing, processing and distribution of methylene chloride for all consumer uses and most industrial and commercial uses, including in home renovations.