Michal Freedhoff, EPA assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said the bans will protect workers, consumers and residents from the chemical’s harms.
By Amudalat Ajasa, The Washington PostA sign warns visitors to stay out of an area that may contain unexploded ordinance on Thursday, April 29, 2021, in Fort Ord, Calif. Among the dozens of pollutants that scientists discovered as early as 1985 was the solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE, a caustic chemical that today still exists in concentrations above the legal limit for drinking water in the aquifer.
The bans follow risk analyses the EPA conducted last year that found that both substances present unreasonable risk of injury to human health or the environment. “The only thing that we could do to really address the risks of this incredibly dangerous chemical was to ban it because there was no way to keep people and the environment safe from its effects,” said Freedhoff, who said Jimmy would be a year younger than her if he were alive today.Anderson had never given much thought to why the water in her Woburn home tasted and smelled so bad, or why she frequently needed to change the pipes under the bathroom and kitchen sink due to rust.
Stricter worker protections will be implemented for limited industries still using TCE. While the proposal called for lower exposure limits for workers, the EPA amended the requirement in the final rule because the technology doesn’t exist to monitor at the low levels originally proposed, Freedhoff said.
Ray Dorsey, professor of neurology at the University of Rochester, said the TCE ban will “end a century of it causing cancer.” After decades, Miguel’s Dry Cleaning upgraded their perc machines to a cleaner alternative, in part because of years of pressure from the state. But to Moronta, it was also the best decision his father made for the shop in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood.
Melanie Benesh, vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, called the action historic, highlighting the EPA’s goal to protect worker safety under the updated Toxic Substances Control Act.
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