Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its final rule on methylene chloride in paint strippers, banning consumer uses and sales of these paint strippers but continuing to allow commercial sales to contractors and other professionals.  

Wendy Hartley, whose 21-year-old son Kevin died after using methylene chloride on the job, issued the following statement in response:

“I am deeply disappointed that the EPA has decided to weaken its proposed ban on methylene chloride. Getting this deadly chemical out of consumers’ hands is a step in the right direction - a step that was started by retailers nationwide. Workers who use methylene chloride will now be left unprotected and at risk of health issues or death. I will continue my fight until the EPA does its job.”

Safer Chemicals Healthy Families Director Liz Hitchcock issued the following statement:

“Earning a paycheck shouldn’t mean risking your life. It is absolutely unacceptable that EPA is finalizing a rule that will do nothing to protect the thousands of workers whose lives and health are in danger as they come in contact with methylene chloride on the job. Workers who use methylene chloride paint strippers regularly are at an increased risk of death and long-term health issues such as cancer. EPA’s final rule leaves both consumers and workers in jeopardy. 

In its original proposed rule, EPA decided against limiting the ban to consumer uses because ‘...paint and coating removal products containing methylene chloride frequently are available in the same distribution channels to consumers and professional users,’ and ‘...cannot be straightforwardly restricted to a single type of project or user.’

EPA has a mandate to protect all Americans from the dangers of toxic chemicals. In issuing this rule, they have failed to do their job. We urge them to reconsider before more lives are lost, and we will see them in court to hold them to the standards required by law.”

Methylene chloride has been linked to more than 60 deaths nationwide since 1980 and is linked to lung and liver cancer, neurotoxicity, and reproductive toxicity. Since EPA proposed its ban last year, at least four people in the U.S. have died while working with methylene chloride-based paint strippers. NMP, which is sometimes substituted for methylene chloride in paint removers, impacts fetal development and can cause miscarriage and stillbirth. According to the EPA, more than 60,000 U.S. workers and 2 million consumers are exposed to methylene chloride and NMP annually.

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the country’s principal chemical safety law, requires EPA to regulate chemicals that present an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment. In January 2017, the Obama EPA determined that methylene chloride places consumers, workers, and bystanders at unreasonable risk of injury and proposed to ban its use in paint strippers. The agency also proposed banning or restricting the use of NMP in paint strippers. In May 2018, EPA promised to finalize the methylene chloride ban “shortly.”

In January 2019, the mothers of two young men who died recently from methylene chloride exposure joined Safer Chemicals Healthy Families and the Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG) to file suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its failure to finalize a ban on the use of the lethal chemical in paint strippers.

In the absence of federal action and in the face of mounting pressure from families, the Mind the Store campaign and other advocates, thirteen major U.S. home improvement, big box, and auto parts retailers took action throughout 2018 and 2019 to protect their customers from the chemical, announcing plans to ban methylene chloride and NMP based paint strippers from over 30,000 stores’ shelves nationwide and around the world.

Timeline of retailer policy commitments on toxic paint strippers:

• May 2018: Lowe’s becomes the first major U.S. retailer to commit to ending sales of paint strippers containing methylene chloride and NMP globally by the end of 2018.

• June 2018: Sherwin-Williams, the nation’s largest specialty retailer of paint and paint supplies, announces it is phasing out the sale of methylene chloride paint strippers by the end of 2018 and that it will continue to keep NMP paint strippers off its shelves. A few days later, The Home Depot, the world’s largest home improvement retailer, announces it will ban the sale of toxic paint strippers in all of its stores by the end of 2018.

• August 2018: Walmart announces it will ban toxic paint strippers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, and on walmart.com by February 2019.

• September 2018: Canadian Tire commits to ban paint strippers containing methylene chloride and NMP by the end of 2018.

• October 2018: AutoZone, PPG, and Kelly Moore Paints disclose they are banning toxic paint strippers.

• November 2018: Home Hardware and True Value announce they are banning the sale of toxic paint strippers. Amazon.com posts a new policy prohibiting the sale of methylene chloride and NMP in all paint stripper products it sells, effective March 2019.
• February 2019: Menards indicates plans to phase out the sale of paint strippers containing methylene chloride and NMP. Ace Hardware becomes the 13th U.S. retailer to publicly commit to stop selling and distributing paint removers that contain the toxic chemicals methylene chloride and NMP.