EPA Announces Action on Methylene Chloride

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2018-05-11

On May 10, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced upcoming actions on methylene chloride, a chemical that can be used for paint stripping. The Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, which amended the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), requires EPA to perform risk evaluations on the uses of ten specific chemicals including methylene chloride. EPA is nearing the completion of Problem Formulations for the first ten chemicals.

A timeline of EPA's recent work on methylene chloride:

● In 2014, EPA addressed the paint stripping uses in its risk assessment.

● In January 2017, EPA proposed prohibiting the consumer and commercial paint stripping uses for methylene chloride.

● In June 2017, EPA announced that it will not re-evaluate the paint stripping uses of methylene chloride.

Based on this work, EPA is announcing three updates:

● EPA intends to finalize the methylene chloride rulemaking;

● EPA is not re-evaluating the paint stripping uses of methylene chloride and is relying on its previous risk assessments; and

● EPA is working to send the finalized rulemaking to OMB shortly.

EPA is working diligently to implement the new law get the most modern and safe chemicals to market, and to ensure the safety of existing chemicals.

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

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