US EPA bans toxic dry cleaning chemical

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday issued a ban on a highly toxic chemical used in dry cleaning, glue and stain removers, a move the agency called a “major milestone for chemical safety after decades of inadequate protections and serious delays.”

The new rule will ban the manufacture and processing of trichloroethylene (TCE) for most products within one year, allowing a longer phaseout period for TCE use in aircrafts, medical devices and some other applications.

TCE is a known human carcinogen, and is also linked to birth defects and liver and kidney disease, as well as a surge in global Parkinson’s disease diagnoses.

“With no doubt that these chemicals are deadly, there is no doubt that this final rule will save lives – especially our children’s lives – around the country,” Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) said in a statement.

The chemical, contaminates the drinking water of an estimated 19 million people, posing an especially high risk to pregnant women, infants and young children.

In a 2020 risk evaluation, the EPA found that 52 out of 54 conditions of use for TCE carry “unreasonable” health risks.

While all uses of TCE will ultimately be prohibited, “some of the exemptions associated with longer timeframes are necessary to avoid impacts to national security or critical infrastructure,” the EPA states on its website.

The agency will require a new inhalation exposure limit for TCE uses that will be phased out over more than one year, which the agency estimates will reduce long-term exposure in the workplace by 97%.

Last year, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) issued a statement asking EPA not to “unnecessarily restrict valuable industrial uses” if it moved forward with a ban. The chemical industry trade association noted that TCE has “several important uses in packaging and formulation, and as a solvent, where small amounts are used.”

While TCE is less expensive than replacement cleaning fluids, a number of safer alternatives are available.

The rule will also require companies to eliminate all consumer and many industrial uses of perchloroethylene (PCE), which has similar applications, in less than three years. PCE is also linked to cancer and organ damage, can break down into TCE and sometimes contains trace amounts of the chemical.

“For several uses of TCE that will be totally prohibited, there is an analogous use of PCE that can continue safely in perpetuity under workplace controls,” said the EPA in a press release.

Several notable instances of contamination have put a national spotlight on the chemicals’ health dangers.

In June, former employees of a Mississippi auto parts company filed a lawsuit alleging that the company illegally dumped toxic waste containing TCE for more than 50 years, poisoning workers and contaminating the soil, air and groundwater in the community of Water Valley.

In one of the worst such cases recorded in the US, TCE, PCE and other chemical contaminants were found in the drinking water of North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune military base in the 1980s after the base had been operating for more than three decades. Over a million service members and their families may have been exposed, with marines who spent time at the base reportedly at elevated risk for numerous cancers and other illnesses.

(Featured image via Getty Images for Unsplash+.)