The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it would not seek to redo an Obama administration report that listed the numerous health risks from exposure to the paint stripper chemical methylene chloride.
The EPA is “not re-evaluating the paint stripping uses of methylene chloride and is relying on its previous risk assessments,” the agency announced.
The paint stripping chemical has caused dozens of deaths, and environmentalists have called on EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to ban the substance as a public health concern.
The agency also said it plans to finish the regulatory process for the chemical that started under the Obama administration in 2016. It expects to send a final determination on the chemical “shortly” to the Office of Management and Budget for review.
Pruitt recently met with the parents of children who died from exposure to the chemical solvent. Wendy Hartley and Cindy Wynne met with Pruitt a few days before Thursday’s announcement.
Hartley and Wynne said they were disappointed that the visit was not followed by a commitment to ban the substance.
But Senate Democrats said Thursday’s announcement should be greeted with optimism that the EPA is moving ahead with a ban on the chemical.
Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, took the announcement to mean that the EPA “intends to finalize a ban on methylene chloride.”
Carper, an outspoken critic of Pruitt, said the announcement “is welcome news, especially after the agency previously delayed finalization of this proposed ban indefinitely.”
Nevertheless, Carper is “encouraged” that the EPA is relying on the Obama-era risk assessments, which “clearly and scientifically showed just how threatening products containing methylene chloride could be to people’s health and safety.”
However, “just like a law doesn’t mean much if it is not enforced, intentions to finalize a ban on a deadly chemical don’t mean much if that chemical stays on the shelves,” he added.
