It’s a known cancer-causing chemical that is also toxic to our immune system and kidneys. Even very low exposures to it are linked to fetal heart defects that can have life-long health consequences.
It frequently contaminates soil and ground water at hundreds of Superfund sites and is commonly detected in our air. Yet the Trump Administration blocked proposed bans on high-risk uses of this toxic chemical, and is now ignoring many major sources of exposure in an ongoing assessment of its risks.
The chemical is trichloroethylene — or TCE. It’s used in a variety of cleaning products, adhesives, and more.
And EPA’s disregard for the science on this dangerous substance is unacceptable.
EPA’s newly-released draft risk evaluation for TCE cuts multiple corners that lead the agency to badly underestimate the dangers this chemical poses to our health and to our environment. EPA’s approach is not only flat-out illegal, it will also leave all Americans at risk.
Take action today, and demand EPA follow the law and stop ignoring the many ways TCE puts the health of Americans in jeopardy.
Here are the details: TCE is a very toxic chemical. Among other health effects, it is known to cause cancer and interfere with fetal heart development even at very low levels of exposure. Based on an extensive risk assessment, EPA proposed to ban certain high-risk uses of TCE over three years ago, but the Trump Administration abandoned them, instead deciding to start over and reevaluate these uses as part of a process currently underway that will delay any action for years.
In its current draft risk evaluation of the chemical, EPA has dramatically underestimated TCE’s risk, including in the following ways:
- It wrongly ignores over 3 million pounds of TCE annually released into air, water, and land because of a false and illegal assertion that they are adequately addressed under other statutory authorities.
- And it excludes fetal heart defects — the most sensitive health outcome affecting the most sensitive group — from all of its determinations of TCE’s health risks, granting a long-held wish of the chemical industry that dismisses decades of research.
What EPA is doing is dangerous.
Based on this assessment, the agency will fall far short of protecting the public, consumers, workers and our environment from the devastating effects of TCE.
Take action today and demand EPA follow the law and the science to ensure American lives are protected from TCE exposure.
Thank you for standing with us,
Heather Shelby
Action Network Manager
