EPA bans widely used chemicals linked to cancer before Trump takes office | Trump administration

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has banned Perc and TCE, toxic chemicals commonly used in everyday products but strongly linked to cancer and other serious health problems.

The move comes after the first Donald Trump administration abandoned the process of limiting the use of these chemicals, but the bans make it difficult for the second Trump administration to reverse the rules.

The chemicals are commonly used in dry cleaning, carpet cleaning, hoof polish, brake cleaners, adhesives, pepper spray and lubricants.

“After decades of workers and communities across the country sounding the alarm about the devastating health effects they have experienced, we are pleased to see that the EPA has finally banned these dangerous chemicals,” said Liz Hitchcock, director of federal policy for the toxics – Free advocacy for the future.

TCE, or trichlorethylene, has been linked to male reproductive harm, liver disease, kidney disease, neurological damage and Parkinson’s disease. It is particularly a problem for those who live near air force bases or civilian airports because it is often used as an industrial degreaser.

The chemical can leach into groundwater used as a source of drinking water, and officials suspect that TCE water contamination is behind several cancers and is causing military personnel at bases across the United States to become ill and die. Many areas of TCE contamination are designated as Superfund sites, reserved for the most contaminated sites in the country. The EPA found that TCE posed an “unreasonable risk of harm to health or the environment” in 52 of 54 uses in industrial and consumer products.

Still, about 250 million pounds of the chemical are produced and added to consumer products each year – most of which ends up in the water.

Perc, or perchlorethylene, has been linked to similar health problems, including kidney disease, liver damage, memory loss and reduced immune function. It is also believed to cause liver, kidney, brain and testicular cancer.

Perchlorethylene is also used as a degreaser, lubricant and adhesive in manufacturing and is also commonly found in drinking water. It can also emit a gas through the ground that poisons the air in buildings above.

Public health advocates have had the chemicals in their sights for decades. The Obama administration proposed strict restrictions on TCE use in 2016, but the Trump administration lifted them in 2017. The Biden administration went even further than the Obama EPA by banning the substances, a step the agency rarely takes when regulating toxic chemicals.

Trump has claimed that his new administration will clean up the nation’s water and crack down on toxic chemicals, but he also appears poised to defund the EPA while his allies are already moving to impose limits on other chemicals like PFAS. His allies at the American Chemistry Council said the TCE ban was “contrary to the underlying science” and charged that the EPA’s studies were not “realistic.”

Repealing the ban would take about four years, making it difficult for the Trump administration to reverse it.

The use of the chemicals also highlights a fundamental problem in the chemical industry: For most perchlorethylene and TCE applications, there are safer and commercially viable alternatives, but chemical manufacturers still insist on producing the more toxic products.