Toxic-Free Future aims to create a healthier future by promoting the use of safer products, chemicals and practices through cutting-edge research, advocacy, mass organization and consumer engagement.
Dichloromethane has been linked to health effects such as cancer, kidney and liver toxicity, and even death. The Environmental Protection Agency has been aware of these dangers for decades, with 85 deaths between 1980 and 2018.
Despite the existence of safer alternatives and evidence that methylene chloride can kill quickly, the EPA is painfully slow to take action on this dangerous chemical.
The EPA recently proposed a rule banning much of the “manufacture, processing, and distribution of methylene chloride for all consumer and most industrial and commercial purposes” and granting certain industries and federal agencies a temporary exemption.
We’ve waited long enough. To protect workers and the public, please advise the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to finalize the methylene chloride regulation as soon as possible to ban most, if not all, uses of this hazardous chemical.