Widely used in dry cleaning, sealants, and degreasers, TCE contaminates water supplies across the U.S. and has sickened millions in workplaces and communities
Toxic-Free Future applauds final rule
WASHINGTON, DC—This week, U.S. EPA assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Michal Freedhoff announced final bans on the manufacture, processing, and use of trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE), toxic chemicals that have been widely detected in drinking water and are used in stain removers, degreasers, and a range of industrial processes, including dry cleaning. Classified as a human carcinogen through all routes of exposure by the EPA, TCE is also harmful to male reproduction, causes neurological damage, is a liver and kidney toxin, and has been linked to Parkinson’s disease.
Safer Chemicals Healthy Families, the federal policy program of Toxic-Free Future, organized a broad coalition of local, state, and national groups to win reforms of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to enable EPA to take action on dangerous chemicals like TCE and PCE. Since passage of the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act in 2016, Toxic-Free Future has worked with allies in the environmental health community to press for aggressive implementation of the law.
Toxic-Free Future released the following statement in response to this news:
“After decades of workers and communities across the country sounding the alarm about the devastating health effects they’ve experienced, we are glad to see that EPA has finally banned these dangerous chemicals,” said Liz Hitchcock, Director of Safer Chemicals Healthy Families, the federal policy program of Toxic-Free Future. “We campaigned for the 2016 TSCA reforms to enable EPA to take actions like this on highly toxic chemicals.” In the meantime, safer alternatives have gone into use in states across the country, such as the Washington state program that provides financial support to dry cleaners to transition to “wet cleaning,” a safer water-based alternative process.
BACKGROUND ON TCE
Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a volatile organic compound mostly used to manufacture refrigerant chemicals in a closed system. It is also used as a solvent for degreasing, as a spot cleaner in dry cleaning, and in consumer products (cleaners and solvent degreasers, adhesives, lubricants, hoof polishes, mirror edge sealants, and pepper spray).
EPA classifies TCE as a human carcinogen through all routes of exposure. It is also harmful to male reproduction, causes neurological damage, and is a liver and kidney toxin. It has also been linked to Parkinson’s disease.
A timeline of EPA and advocacy actions on TCE include:
- October 2023: EPA announced a proposed ban on the manufacture, processing, and use of trichloroethylene (TCE), opening a 45-day comment period on the proposal.
- January 2023: In its final revised risk determination for TCE (amending EPA’s November 2020 evaluation), EPA found that TCE, as a whole chemical substance, presents an unreasonable risk of injury to health under its conditions of use.
- March 2020: After EPA issued a draft risk evaluation for TCE, Toxic-Free Future organized a letter from 30 local, state, and national groups calling on EPA to take immediate action to address the imminent and serious acute risks of both fetal heart defects and other serious health effects presented by TCE.
- December 2017: EPA signaled its intent to indefinitely delay key rules to regulate toxic chemicals including the TCE proposals.
- In response, Toxic-Free Future’s federal policy program, Safer Chemicals Healthy Families released a report and fact sheet showing that while some companies were phasing out use of this toxic chemical for vapor degreasing, the vast majority seemed to be holding back to “wait and see” if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ever adopts its proposed ban on the use.
- In addition, Toxic-Free Future called on the EPA to immediately finalize bans on major uses of TCE proposed in 2016 and abandoned by the Trump EPA in 2017, among other recommendations. And, in January 2021, EPA officially withdrew both rules.
- January 11, 2017: EPA issued another proposed rule to prohibit additional uses of TCE under TSCA, based on health risks resulting from the use of TCE in vapor degreasing.
- December 7, 2016: EPA published a proposed rule to ban certain uses of TCE under section 6(a) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) as a result of risks to health from its use in commercial and consumer aerosol degreasing and as a spot cleaner in dry cleaning.
- 2014: In a risk assessment, EPA said that the most vulnerable groups exposed to TCE are pregnant women using TCE-containing household sprays and workers (including pregnant women) using TCE-containing vapor degreasers.
TOXIC-FREE FUTURE
Toxic-Free Future is a national leader in environmental health research and advocacy. Through the power of science, education, and activism, Toxic-Free Future drives strong laws and corporate responsibility that protects the health of all people and the planet. www.toxicfreefuture.org
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