chemicals and practices for a healthier future through cutting-edge research

       Toxic-Free Futures works to promote the use of safer products, chemicals and practices for a healthier future through cutting-edge research, advocacy, grassroots organizing and consumer engagement.
        In April 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed banning most uses of methylene chloride. Toxic-Free Futures welcomed the proposal while calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to act quickly to finalize the rule and extend its protections to all workers. more.
        Methylene chloride (also known as methylene chloride or DCM) is an organohalogen solvent used in paint or coating removers and other products such as degreasers and stain removers. When methylene chloride vapor accumulates, the chemical can cause suffocation and heart attacks. This has happened to dozens of people who used paint and coating strippers containing the chemical, including Kevin Hartley and Joshua Atkins. No family should ever have to lose a loved one again to this chemical.
        In 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed banning the use of methylene chloride for paint strippers (residential and commercial use). Later that year, methylene chloride became one of the first ten “existing” chemicals for which the Environmental Protection Agency began a risk assessment to consider all uses of the chemical.
        Toxic-Free Future has launched a campaign to convince more than a dozen retailers, including Lowe’s, Home Depot and Walmart, to voluntarily stop selling paint strippers containing the chemical. After meeting with families of people who died from serious exposure to the chemical, the Environmental Protection Agency ultimately banned its use in consumer products in 2019, but allowed its continued use in workplaces where its use may be associated with the same fatal when used at home. . In fact, between 1985 and 2018, there were 85 reported exposure deaths, 75% of which were due to workplace exposure.

        In 2020 and 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency published risk assessments that found the vast majority of methylene chloride uses pose “an unreasonable risk of harm to health or the environment.” In 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed to ban all consumer uses of chemicals and most industrial and commercial uses, with time-limited exemptions for critical uses and significant exemptions for some federal agencies from workplace protection requirements.