BURSTThe Biden administration is banning a cancer-causing substance used in dry cleaning and is also banning most uses of another, similar chemical.
The administration's ban is on a chemical known as TCE, which is also used in consumer and commercial products used in furniture care and brake cleaners.
TCE causes liver, kidney and blood cancer, as well as damage to the central nervous system, liver, kidneys, immune system and reproductive organs. It can also cause fetal heart defects.
The administration is additionally banning all consumer and most industrial uses of another substance known as PCE, which is also used in dry cleaning. Under the administration’s PCE rule the substance will be phased out of dry cleaning in 10 years.
PCE causes liver, kidney, brain and testicular cancer and can also damage the kidneys, liver, immune system, brain and reproductive system.
Both chemicals are also notorious for contaminating drinking water at the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina.
“It’s simply unacceptable to continue to allow cancer-causing chemicals to be used for things like glue, dry cleaning or stain removers when safer alternatives exist,” Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said in a written statement.
Most uses of TCE will be banned within one year, though some will be allowed to continue for longer.
In battery manufacturing the substance will be allowed for another 20 years, while in “essential laboratory activities” and some research and development it will be allowed to be used for another 50 years.
The moves come weeks before President-elect Trump takes office. His previous administration took a different approach — it withdrew an Obama-era effort to ban some uses of TCE.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that about 68,000 workers, including 1,200 pregnant workers, may currently be exposed to TCE annually. It estimates that about 291,000 workers are exposed to PCE