The Environmental Protection Agency announced a ban on the manufacture of a paint stripping chemical in products for consumers, but will allow it to continue to be available for commercial use by professionals.
The ruling is scaled back from a 2017 EPA conclusion that the chemical, methylene chloride, was an “unreasonable risk” to consumers and professionals alike.
The new rule will prohibit sales of products containing the chemical in retail and distribution establishments that have consumer sales, as well as e-commerce sales. The prohibition will begin in 180 days after the March 15 ruling.
Methylene chloride has been linked to more than 60 deaths since 1980, according to chemical safety advocacy group Safer Chemicals Healthy Families. Several of the deaths have occurred in the past few years.
“EPA has a mandate to protect all Americans from the dangers of toxic chemicals,” Safer Chemicals Healthy Families Director Liz Hitchcock said in a statement, noting disappointment that the ban did not also include commercial use. “We urge them to reconsider before more lives are lost, and we will see them in court to hold them to the standards required by law.”
Recent fatalities from use of the chemical and advocacy for a ban sparked several large retailers, including Sherwin-Williams, The Home Depot and Lowe’s, to announce a phasing out of the product from store shelves.
