The following information is from Children’s Health Defense.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a ban on trichloroethylene (TCE), a highly toxic chemical used in dry cleaning, glue, and stain removers. The agency called this decision a “major milestone for chemical safety,” addressing decades of inadequate protections and delays.
TCE is a known human carcinogen linked to birth defects, liver and kidney disease, and a rise in global Parkinson’s disease diagnoses. It also contaminates the drinking water of an estimated 19 million Americans, posing the greatest risks to pregnant women, infants, and children.
The new rule bans the manufacture and processing of TCE for most products within a year. However, industries such as aviation and medical devices will have longer timelines to phase out the chemical, citing national security and critical infrastructure concerns. The EPA will also enforce new workplace exposure limits during the phaseout, which it estimates will reduce workplace exposure by 97%.
The ban also applies to perchloroethylene (PCE), another chemical with similar uses that can break down into TCE. PCE has been linked to cancer and organ damage, with its phaseout scheduled to take place over a longer timeframe.
High-profile contamination cases have highlighted the dangers of TCE and PCE. In Water Valley, Mississippi, a company is accused of illegally dumping TCE waste for over 50 years, contaminating the community’s soil, air, and groundwater. At Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, decades of water contamination with TCE and PCE exposed over a million service members and their families to increased risks of cancer and other illnesses.
The EPA’s actions mark progress in addressing the dangers of TCE and PCE, though some uses will remain permitted under workplace controls.
For more information, read the full article here.
Most of the soil and groundwater from TCE/PCE are legacy. I have worked on remediation of these for the US Army since the late 1990’s. Another chemical produced from chlorinated ethane to ethene in vinyl chlorine VC.
I is just as toxic or more toxic than TCE. In the ground, VC is produce from anaerobic remediation of TCE.
VC is used in the production of many plastics for water pipes and medical plastics.
I disagree with the ban on production of TCE as the US will just import the product from somewhere use.
We have more health issues with glyphosate and agricultural chemicals than industrial chemicals
Strangely, there will be no consequence for those who have poisoned us, yet the EPA will gleefully fine a family farm into bankruptcy over environmental concerns of their pond.
Interesting after “decades” of use it now becomes chemical safety issue. For decades 50+ yers it was ok. Is this maybe a reaction to RFK, Jr’s call to start looking at what the food industry, manufacturing industry, chemical industry have been doing for decades?
Human health wasn’t an issue for all those years but now it is. The blatant disregard, the corruption amongst government and industry is being exposed.
I use to use methylene chloride solvent to wash the glue off car batteries on the manufacturer assembly line. It is also used to wash the caffeine out of coffee beans to make decaffeinated coffee.
Phosphoric acid is used as a cleaning product to make things like stainless steel water fountains and other stainless steel items shine. It’s also used in soft drinks. Vandals use soft drinks to pour it on car hoods .