The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Monday a ban on two chemicals commonly found in everyday products due to their links to cancer and other serious diseases.
The two chemicals, trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE), are widely used in products such as glue, dry cleaning solvents, and stain removers.
“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,” said Michal Freedhoff, Assistant Administrator for the EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
“These rules are grounded in the best-available science that demonstrates the harmful impacts of PCE and TCE. EPA continues to deliver on actions that protect people, including workers and children, under the nation’s premier bipartisan chemical safety law,” Freedhoff added.
PCE and TCE are both nonflammable chlorinated solvents classified as volatile organic compounds. PCE can degrade into TCE, and may contain trace amounts of TCE as an impurity or contaminant.
TCE is an extremely toxic chemical known to cause liver cancer, kidney cancer, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It also causes damage to the central nervous system, liver, kidneys, immune system, reproductive organs, and can lead to fetal heart defects, according to the EPA.
PCE is known to cause liver, kidney, brain, and testicular cancers, as well as damage to the kidney, liver, and immune system. It also has neurotoxic and reproductive toxic effects.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
