EPA Reclassifies Six Solvents, VOCs As Less Toxic - ENS

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WASHINGTON, DC, November 19, 2004 (ENS) - At the request of the chemical industry, one chemical has been removed from the federal list of air toxics, and five others have been reclassified as less harmful than previously thought, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Thursday. The agency says the move will "create incentives for industry to use solvents that are less toxic and may help decrease the formation of ground level ozone or smog."

The solvent ethylene glycol mono-butyl ether (EGBE) has been removed from the list of hazardous air pollutants, but it remains regulated as a volative organic compound (VOC) and will continue to be reported in the Toxics Release Inventory. The chemical t-butyl acetate (TBAC) and four others have been exempted from control as volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

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In 1997, the EPA received a petition in 1997 from the American Chemistry Council to delist EGBE. After two analyses, the agency says it determined that outdoor use of the chemical would not be harmful to humans or the environment. "After extensively reviewing the levels of EGBE in the air and the health and environmental impacts associated with those levels, EPA has concluded that potential outdoor exposures to EGBE may not reasonably be anticipated to cause human health or environmental problems," the agency said in a statement Thursday. The agency admits that "EGBE use and, therefore, emissions may increase as a result of this action," it creates incentives for industry "to use EGBE instead of other more toxic solvents."

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But indoor use is a different story. An analysis of EGBE effects by by Roger McFadden, technical director of Coastwide Laboratories, a Pacific Northwest chain of 11 labs, finds that indoor use of the chemical in wax and finish strippers is likely to cause health problems. EGBE has been shown to be toxic to liver, kidneys, lungs and red blood cells, according to a report given to the American Occupational Health Conference, in the spring of 1994, by Lawrence W. Raymond, M.D., East Carolina University School of Medicine. The report says seven floor care workers reported nausea, severe eye and upper respiratory irritation when exposed to wax strippers containing EGBE. The Material Safety Data Sheet for EGBE states, "Acute effects are narcosis and irritation to eyes and skin ... Chronic effects are blood effects and injury to liver and kidney."

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