by Dave Gecic
I recently watched the “US EPA Webinar: Proposed Regulation of Methylene Chloride Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)”. The “Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP)” was the host. They proposed a ban on most of its uses.
In a Nutshell
These are only proposed regulations. But it appears that the EPA will take these or very similar actions. These are in addition to the regulations they imposed in 2020.
In a nutshell they are suggesting to ban it use in most industrial applications. These will include banning the use of methylene chloride in paint stripping and all type of metal cleaning applications. They have concluded that if poses an “Unmanageable Risk”
The EPA cannot actually regulate consumers. They cannot ban people from using any products they want to. However the EPA finds ways to use key industries to effectively ban chemicals. And they plan on using this power to prevent any end user in the manufacturing industry to have access to this material. AND they are making new exposure limits that may be impossible to meet.
The TSCA Law requires that the EPA address and regulate all “Unmanageable Risks” and these new regulations will address that. The EPA seems to believe that there are other chemicals that can replace methylene chloride. Even though these are just proposed regulations a ban is on the horizon.
Recent History of Methylene Chloride Regulation
On May 3rd, 2023 the proposed new rule changes were published. They were based under their final evaluation under the Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act. Congress passed this in 2016 and it modified the TSCA laws which had been in effect since 1976. In 2016 they ordered a review of ten long used chemicals and methylene chloride was one of them.
In 2020 they concluded their first risk evaluations and in June of 2020 they released their initial safety evaluation of methylene chloride. That is when the banned all over the counter sales of methylene chloride.
LINK: (2020 methylene chloride rule changes.)
Methylene chloride is nasty. It is a very hazardous chemical. Between 1985 and 2018 methylene chloride was responsible for 85 deaths in the US. Mostly people working in confined spaces. And mostly people stripping bathtubs. Mostly Hispanic workers who did not know the safety concerns. Ironically the last death due to methylene chloride happened in June 2020 the same month that they released their new regulations.
Application to People and Employees
The EPA TSCA rules do not apply to the pharmaceutical industry. They do not apply to the food industry. The FDA and USDA regulates these.
Normally smaller business and sole proprietors are not subject to all OSHA rules. However, the EPA rules apply to everyone. It is more restrictive than OSHA regulations. A sole proprietor of a shop can kill himself by using hazardous materials. As long as he is not an employee the OSHA laws do not apply. However the EPA laws do.
The EPA cannot restrict the consumer use of any product or material. But they can regulate the manufacturing, shipping, and use by employees. They can regulate everything “upstream” of the consumer and they intend to do so.
Application to Industries and Processes
It appears that the EPA wants to ban all commercial uses of methylene chloride.
No more methylene chloride in aerosols, brush cleaners, paint and coating removers. These are all specifically mentioned. If you are using methylene chloride as a paint stripper you are probably screwed.
The list goes on: degreasing, solvent in coating, printed circuit boards. It even mentions toy and footwear manufacturing and used car dealers. The list is very exhaustive and it can be found here in this document.
A partial list of the industries from the proposal includes: “solvent for batch vapor degreasing; solvent for in-line vapor degreasing; solvent for cold cleaning; solvent for aerosol spray degreaser/cleaner; adhesives, sealants, and caulks; paints and coatings; paint and coating removers (including furniture refinishers); adhesive and caulk removers; metal aerosol degreasers; metal non-aerosol degreasers; finishing products for fabric, textiles and leather; automotive care products (functional fluids for air conditioners); automotive care products (interior car care); automotive care products (degreasers); apparel and footwear care products; spot removers for apparel and textiles; liquid lubricants and greases; spray lubricants and greases; aerosol degreasers and cleaners; non-aerosol degreasers and cleaners; cold pipe insulations; solvent that becomes part of a formulation or mixture; processing aid; propellant and blowing agent; electrical equipment, appliance, and component manufacturing; plastic and rubber products manufacturing; cellulose triacetate film production; anti-spatter welding aerosol; oil and gas drilling, extraction, and support activities; toys, playground and sporting equipment; carbon remover, wood floor cleaner, and brush cleaner; and lithographic printing plate cleaner.”
They plane on using a “staggered implementation” to assure an orderly phase out.
Some industries may be able to get an approved WCPP (Workplace Chemical Protection Program) but this will prove too difficult to be practical for most uses. This is only available to those industries which are not banned.
WCPP (Workplace Chemical Protection Program)
A WCPP has to decide what the monitoring frequency, engineering controls, and process changes must be. But there is no way to monitor the workplace exposure.
And a WCPP is only allowed for a few industries: processing as a reactant; laboratory use; industrial or commercial use in aerospace and military paint and coating removal from safety-critical, corrosion-sensitive components by Federal agencies and their contractors; industrial or commercial use as a bonding agent for acrylic and polycarbonate in mission-critical military and space vehicle applications, including in the production of specialty batteries for such by Federal agencies and their contractors; and disposal. That’s it.
They have determined that there are some uses of methylene chloride that are critical. However these can only be determined by the DOD and NASA. It appears that there will probably be an exemption for commercial aviation for ten years. However this has not been finalized.
The EPA is working with OSHA, NIOSH, and CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) to try to develop consistent rules. Because of this there will probably be a cascade effect that will create more regulations.
It can be continued to be used as reactant to support The American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020 which is designed to limit greenhouse gases. It is used to make a variety of hydro-fluorocarbons.
What is Methylene Chloride
Methylene chloride is a colorless, non-flammable liquid that is used paint removers, degreasers, paints and in some industrial processes, such as the production of plastics and foams.
Methylene chloride causes cancer. It effects the liver. It causes acute effects on the nervous system. Neurological effects very from blurred vision to death. The EPA has found that it is not an “unreasonable risk” to the environment only to the people who use it.
They have concluded that it “cannot be used by consumers in a safe manner”. They have concluded that it cannot be diluted to a safe level.
The EPA acknowledges it is a widely used chemical: “Regarding the magnitude of human exposure, one factor EPA considers for the conditions of use that drive unreasonable risk is the size of the exposed population, which, for methylene chloride, EPA estimates is 785,000 workers, 135,000 occupational non-users, and 15 million consumers”.
There are approximately 237,930 firms using methylene chloride and 230,266 of these are small businesses.
From the proposal: “Methylene chloride is a solvent used in a variety of industrial, commercial, and consumer use applications, including adhesives, pharmaceuticals, metal cleaning, chemical processing, and feedstock in the production of refrigerant hydrofluorocarbon-32 (HFC–32). Specifically, methylene chloride use in commercial paint and coating removal provides benefits for some users because it is readily available and works quickly and effectively on nearly all coatings without damaging most substrates. For a variety of additional uses ( e.g., adhesives, adhesive removers, cold pipe insulation, welding anti-spatter spray) methylene chloride is relatively inexpensive, highly effective, evaporates quickly, and is not flammable, making it a popular and effective solvent for many years.”
New Limits on Exposure
So can you just get enough safety equipment and develop a WCPP to address the new regulations? They state: “When making unreasonable risk determinations as part of TSCA risk evaluations, EPA cannot assume as a general matter that all workers are always equipped with and appropriately using sufficient PPE,” They are proposing low limits without protective equipment.
They do not allow a WCPP for most uses AND the OSHA limit for methylene chloride is an 8 hour exposure of 25 ppm. The new EPA standard will be 2 ppm. So the amount of allowable fumes in the air is more than 10 times lower than the OSHA limit. This is the “Time Weighted Average” for an eight hour exposure. This is usually used to regulate the long term exposure to a material.
The 15 minute TWA that OSHA has is 125 ppm. The new EPA limit is 15 ppm. This is usually called the STEL (Short Term Exposure Limit).
There is no practical way to detect concentrations of methylene chloride which are that low. In other words, you cannot prove that you can achieve such a low exposure limit. In order to develop a WCPP you have to monitor the amount of exposure.
Personal Protective Equipment
EPA has based their findings independent of any PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). You cannot continue to use methylene chloride using a respirator as a control. This will satisfy the OSHA regulations but not the EPA’s.
The proposal states: “EPA believes it is appropriate to evaluate the levels of risk present in baseline scenarios where PPE is not assumed to be used by workers. This approach of not assuming PPE use by workers considers the risk to potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations (workers and occupational non-users) who may not be covered by OSHA standards, such as self-employed individuals and public sector workers who are not covered by a State Plan.”
They assume that the OSHA standards may not be followed: “Therefore, EPA makes its determinations of unreasonable risk based on scenarios that do not assume compliance with OSHA standards, including any applicable exposure limits or requirements for use of respiratory protection or other PPE.”
Furniture Strippers Using Methylene Chloride
There are not many good alternative strippers to remove coatings from wood. They either work extremely slow, are extremely flammable, or damage the wood surface. Methylene Chloride is unique in that it strips paint and is absorbed by the wood but volatilizes and does not remain in the wood.
The EPA realizes this is a problem. But they are not proposing to make adjustments for the furniture industry like they did in the 2020 regulations. From the EPA: “Additionally, in the unique case of furniture refinishing (within the commercial paint and coating removal condition of use), alternatives to products containing methylene chloride may not be economically viable and may cause damage to the substrate, and thus the prohibition of this use could impact the sector significantly.”
The EPA states in their proposed regulations: “While EPA in the past has proposed to exclude commercial furniture refinishing from regulation of the use of methylene chloride in commercial paint and coating removal, this proposed rule does not exclude commercial furniture refinishing from the proposed prohibition on the use of methylene chloride for commercial paint and coating removal, because EPA has determined that this use drives the unreasonable risk for methylene chloride, reasonably available information demonstrates that alternative methods or substitute chemicals are available to some extent, and, based on reasonably available information, EPA has not found that a TSCA section 6(g) exemption is warranted for the use of methylene chloride in commercial furniture refinishing.”
So in other words there will be no exceptions for the furniture industry. Further they say: “The impact of a prohibition of methylene chloride for furniture refinishing could result in the closure of an unknown number of the 5,000 potentially affected furniture refinishing firms using methylene chloride in the baseline.” And “While the economic impacts of prohibiting the commercial use of methylene chloride for furniture refinishing may be significant for this sector, it is unclear whether this will result in firm closures, and, if so, how many.”
They are aware that this will be a major difficulty. However this does not change the proposed ban.
Timeline for Methylene Chloride Regulations
EPA plans to implement their rules with a 3 month notice. In addition, they plan on having the total final rules implemented within 18 months of the finalization.
EPA proposed the rule on May 3, 2023.
The end of the comment period was July 3, 2023.
The final rule will be published in 2024 and it is estimated that it will start 90 days after publication. I suspect it will be early 2024 so it will be implemented just before the presidential election.
I suspect: 3 months after implementation the raw material will no longer be available (manufacturers). 6 months after implementation you can no longer make chemical blends using the material (processors). 9 months after implementation you can n longer ship it (distributors). 12 months after it will no longer be available (retailers).
I expect the ban will be finalized by the end of 2024 or very beginning of 2025.
Comments During the Presentation
Shortly after this presentation the time period to make a comment on the proposed regulations closed. So no one can add any input to the EPA at this point. The end of the comment period was July 3, 2023.
The comments were sometimes heated especially from the furniture stripping industry. They commented that there is not available replacement. Custom Designed Chemicals manufactures low hazard paint strippers that work on metal but low hazard materials tend to be slower evaporating and “soak into” the wood.
I was surprised by the number of people who were using methylene chloride as a heat transfer fluid. In these applications the methylene chloride would be in sealed system. However the solvent is sealed in a contained system and does not expose workers to the chemical under normal conditions. The proposed regulations will stop that use.
There were some comments by people from the industrial painting industry.
Some of the comments discussed potential replacements that are highly flammable and that would cause a more hazardous workplace.
Final Thoughts
The EPA seems serious with this round of regulations. They may not have a total ban on its usage but will have serious new regulations. These will require a high amount of safety equipment and monitoring that will effectively ban it. The cost of control equipment will prevent it use in all but the largest of companies. Perhaps not even in the largest of companies.
They will regulate it upstream of the final user and make it extremely difficult if not impossible to obtain the material. I recommend looking for alternative processes far in advance of the 2024 final rules.
There are alternative paint strippers available for use. But most of these cannot be used in the wooden furniture industry. Most of these work slower or need some heat. They are more expensive. Many of the alternatives to methylene chloride have similar hazards or are highly flammable.
The regulations that the EPA put into effect in 2020 were reasoned and balanced with the needs of the industry. Because of this they did not cause a major upheaval. This ban will cause major upheavals.