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WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday announced new limits for a deadly chemical found in paint stripping products and linked to more than 50 deaths since the 1980s.
Chemical safety activists have termed the plan significant reduction of the ban proposed by the Obama administration. In 2017, the Obama administration concluded that the chemical, methylene chloride, represented an "unreasonable risk" and decided to ban it for both commercial use and for the consumer.
Andrew Wheeler, E.P.A. Administrator, signed Friday a rule prohibiting the manufacture and use of consumer products containing methylene chloride, but did not prohibit it for commercial use. The agency is also studying a proposal for a certification and training program for workers who use the chemical for commercial purposes.
"Families have lost loved ones in tragic and heartbreaking circumstances," said Alexandra Dunn, a counselor at E.P.A. Assistant Administrator for Chemical Safety. "We responded to the call made to many affected families to ensure that no other family would suffer the death of anyone close to this chemical."
Stores will have 180 days to stop selling products containing methylene chloride. After that, offenders will be fined or sentenced to imprisonment.
Ms. Dunn stated that the E.P.A. Retailers should comply with it "much more quickly". To date, at least 13 retailers have reported that they have removed or removed from their shelves the paint stripping products containing the chemical.
The parents of three men died from exposure to paint strippers containing methylene chloride met early in 2018 with Scott Pruitt, then a director of E.P.A. Among them was Brian Wynne, Drew Wynne's brother, deceased in 2017 after removing the floor paint from his coffee business in Charleston, S.C.
Wendy Hartley, of Nashville, Tennessee, whose son Kevin died at age 21 after repainting a bathtub on behalf of the family. Hartley said Friday that che refused to meet E.P.A. officials before the announcement of the agency because the decision does not ban the chemical.
"I am deeply disappointed that E.P.A. raised the ban on methylene chloride as it was originally proposed, "she said in a text message. "Workers like my son Kevin, who use MC, are not protected."
Lindsay McCormick, Project Manager for Chemicals and Health at the Environmental Defense Fund, an environmental group, said that although the chemical poses a threat to people who use paint strippers at home, the majority of methylene chloride-related deaths were work-related. She called E.P.A. decision "a step in the right direction" but added: "I do not want to lose sight of the fact that it only concerns part of the population, and we really need to protect all Americans."
E.P.A. officials did not explain why the agency had decided not to ban a ban, but suggested that it could still be imposed based on comments received by the agency about its plans to certification.
Faye Graul, executive director of the Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance, an industry group, said she was disappointed by the ban on the consumer's uses of the substance and said the organization had collaborated with Consumer Product Safety Commission to improve labeling. "We hope that alternative products offered to consumers, most of which are flammable, do not cause an increased risk of fire," she said.
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