One year after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began the process of banning methylene chloride, the agency announced its final rule for consumer and most industrial and commercial uses of the carcinogenic chemical methylene chloride. The ban becomes effective on July 8, 2024, when the final rule was published in the Federal Register.
There are several deadlines for distribution and use contained in the final rule for consumer and industrial and commercial uses. The deadline for the distribution for consumer use is May 5, 2025. The phase out for most industrial and commercial uses, including uses in printing, is April 28, 2026.
Methylene chloride can be found in some printing operations. The two most common uses are in “blanket fix” for offset lithographic printing and as a “spot remover” in apparel decoration. The ban will require the suppliers of these two products to revise their formulations.
Exposure to methylene chloride, also called dichloromethane, has been linked to cancer, harm to the central nervous system, and toxicity to the liver. Long-term health effects include various cancers, including liver and lung cancer, and damage to the nervous, immune, and reproductive systems.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) established a standard in 1997 that required companies using the chemical to conduct employee exposure monitoring to ensure that workers exposure was limited. The standard for permissible exposure limits is 25 parts per million parts of air (ppm) as an eight-hour time-weighted average, action level of 12.5 ppm, and a 15-minute short-term exposure limit of 125 ppm. If printing operations failed to monitor exposure, they face an OSHA citation that can carry a penalty up to $15,625. Once the chemical is banned, companies will no longer be required to perform monitoring.
While EPA banned methylene chloride as a paint stripper in 2019, its use remained widespread. The EPA’s final risk management rule requires companies to rapidly phase down manufacturing, processing, and distribution of methylene chloride for all consumer uses and most industrial and commercial uses.
The EPA rule bans all consumer uses but allows certain “critical” uses in the military and industrial processing and in the production of other chemicals, including chemicals that are important in efforts to reduce global warming outlined in the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act.
These uses include:
- Production of battery separators for electric vehicles.
- Use as a processing aid in a closed system.
- Use as a laboratory chemical.
- Use in plastic and rubber manufacturing, including polycarbonate production.
- Use in solvent welding.
Methylene chloride will be allowed to continue because of strict workplace controls that provide sufficient reductions in exposure thereby minimizing risks to workers.
In this article, Gary Jones, Vice President, Environmental, Health, and Safety Affairs, PRINTING United Alliance, addresses EPA compliance. More information about EPA can be found at Business Excellence-EHS Affairs or reach out to Gary should you have additional questions specific to how these issues may affect your business: gjones@printing.org.
To become a member of the Alliance and learn more about how our subject matter experts can assist your company with services and resources such as those mentioned in this article, please contact the Alliance membership team: 888-385-3588 / membership@printing.org.