Washington — The Environmental Protection Agency desires to guard staff in opposition to publicity to the chemical substance carbon tetrachloride – and ban makes use of that have already got been phased out.
Used in business and industrial merchandise, carbon tetrachloride – or CTC – has been linked to most cancers and liver toxicity stemming from inhalation and being uncovered to or absorbed by way of the pores and skin, in keeping with a proposed rule printed on July 28.
EPA has discovered that CTC poses “unreasonable” danger of harm to human well being underneath a number of circumstances of use.
The proposal would allow the company to ascertain a office chemical safety program that units the chemical publicity restrict at 0.03 elements per million over an 8-hour time-weighted common for makes use of together with:
- Domestic manufacture
- Import
- Processing as a reactant within the manufacturing of hydroflurocarbons and perchloroethylene
- Repackaging to be used as a laboratory chemical
- Recycling
- Industrial and business use as an industrial processing assist within the manufacture of agricultural merchandise
Anyone concerned in laboratory use of the chemical could be required to make use of a fume hood and private protecting tools to guard their pores and skin.
The company additionally seeks to ban circumstances of CTC use it understands have already been phased out, together with:
- Incorporation into formulation, combination or response merchandise in petrochemical-derived manufacturing
- Industrial and business use in steel restoration
- Industrial and business use as an additive
- Industrial and business use in specialty makes use of by the Department of Defense
“The science is clear. Exposure to carbon tetrachloride is dangerous and we have a responsibility to protect the public from the risks it poses,” Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator of the EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, stated in a press launch.
The deadline to touch upon the proposal is Sept. 11. OSHA has scheduled a regulatory overview webinar for 1 p.m. Eastern on Aug. 15.
