On December 9, 2024 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the latest risk management rules for trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE) under the 2016 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) amendments.
TCE is a toxic chemical in products for consumer and commercial use known to cause human health risks even at very small concentrations. Under today’s rule, all uses of TCE will be banned over time (with the vast majority of identified risks eliminated within one year), and safer alternatives are readily available for the majority of uses. These chemicals can be found in industries like dry cleaning, automotive repair and manufacturing.
EPA aims to better protect people from health risks by banning manufacture, processing and distribution in commerce of PCE for all consumer uses and many commercial uses, while allowing some workplace uses to continue only where robust workplace controls can be implemented. PCE and TCE are both nonflammable chlorinated solvents that are volatile organic compounds. PCE can biodegrade into TCE, and PCE may contain trace amounts of TCE as an impurity or a contaminant. The chemicals can often serve as alternatives for each other. For several uses of TCE that will be totally prohibited, there is an analogous use of PCE that can continue safely in perpetuity under workplace controls. Some examples of uses that will be prohibited under the TCE rule, but will continue under the PCE rule include: industrial and commercial use as an energized electrical cleaner, in laboratory use for asphalt testing and recovery, use to make refrigerants and other chemicals, and for vapor degreasing.
Trichloroethylene – TCE Use and Phase Out
TCE is used as a solvent in consumer and commercial products such as cleaning and furniture care products, degreasers, brake cleaners, sealants, lubricants, adhesives, paints and coatings, arts and crafts spray coatings, and is also used in the manufacture of some refrigerants. Safer alternatives are readily available for the majority of these uses.
EPA is finalizing its prohibition on all uses of TCE, most of which will be prohibited within one year, including TCE manufacture and processing for most commercial and all consumer products. This will protect most people who are likely to be exposed to TCE from uses covered by TSCA, including all consumers and workers in many sectors and many communities.
A limited number of uses in the workplace will be phased out over a longer period. Those uses will only continue with required stringent worker protections in place. All TCE uses with longer phaseout timeframes will have worker safety requirements, such as a Workplace Chemical Protection Plan that includes an inhalation exposure limit. The final rule sets a different inhalation exposure limit for airborne TCE than was proposed. This change was made in response to public comments to ensure the limit is feasible to implement and monitor while still reducing risk. EPA estimates that the new inhalation exposure limit would reduce long-term workplace exposure by 97%.
Many of the TCE uses that are continuing for longer than one year occur in highly industrialized settings that can adopt EPA’s new stringent worker protections, such as uses of TCE to clean parts used in aircraft and medical devices, to manufacture battery separators, to manufacture refrigerants, as well as in other transportation, security and defense systems.
For the use of TCE in manufacturing refrigerants, the longer timeframe supports fighting climate change by complementing efforts to phase down climate-damaging hydrofluorocarbons under the bipartisan American Innovation and Manufacturing Act.
All of these uses ultimately will be prohibited, but some of the exemptions associated with longer timeframes are necessary to avoid impacts to national security or critical infrastructure. In addition, some of the timeframes have been adjusted from the proposed rule based on public comment to allow reasonable time for transitioning to alternatives.
Further, to support cleanup activities at sites of past TCE contamination (e.g., Superfund sites), EPA is allowing essential laboratory use and proper disposal of TCE wastewater to continue for 50 years provided worker protections are in place, including the inhalation exposure limit set by today’s rule.
Perchloroethylene – PCE Phase Out
PCE is a solvent that is widely used for consumer uses such as brake cleaners and adhesives, in commercial applications such as dry cleaning, and in many industrial settings. Safer alternatives are readily available for the majority of these uses. EPA is finalizing a 10-year phaseout for the use of PCE in dry cleaning to eliminate the risk to people who work or spend considerable time at dry cleaning facilities. Use of PCE in newly acquired dry-cleaning machines will be prohibited after six months. Compliance dates for machines that are already owned will vary depending on the type of the dry-cleaning machine used, with older types of machines being phased out sooner than newer ones. Many dry cleaners have already begun this transition. This timeline is unchanged from the proposed rule.
EPA’s final risk management rule requires companies to rapidly phase down manufacturing, processing and distribution of PCE for all consumer use and many uses at industrial and commercial workplaces, most of which will be fully phased out in less than three years. For most of the uses of PCE that EPA is prohibiting, EPA’s analysis found that alternative products with similar costs and efficacy to PCE are reasonably available.
The rule also finalizes stringent, achievable controls for continuing uses under a Workplace Chemical Protection Program. These uses generally occur in highly sophisticated workplaces that may be important to national security, aviation and other critical infrastructure, as well as uses that complement the agency’s efforts to combat the climate crisis. These uses include:
In response to public comments on the proposed rule, most workplaces now have 30 months instead of 12 months to fully implement the Workplace Chemical Protection Program. EPA also revised several other aspects from the proposal to strengthen and clarify aspects of the Workplace Chemical Protection Program, including monitoring requirements. EPA also ensured the employees’ designated representatives, such as labor union representatives, have access to occupational exposure monitoring and records.
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