Most Uses of Deadly Solvent Banned in EPA’s Proposed Rule (3)

All consumer and many industrial and commercial uses of methylene chloride, a sometimes deadly solvent, would be banned under a rule the EPA proposed Thursday.

The rule (RIN: 2070-AK70) is the second regulation the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed since Congress overhauled the nation’s primary chemicals law and demanded the agency start taking action against risky chemicals that have been made and used in the US for years. The first was for a type of asbestos.

Congress had chemicals like methylene chloride in mind when it amended Toxic Substances Control Act, said Michal Freedhoff, assistant EPA administrator for ...