WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency indicated that it will finalize a long-delayed ban on the use of methylene chloride in paint strippers for consumer use by advancing the measure to the White House Office of Management and Budget for final approval.

Yesterday the U.S. Senate confirmed Alexandra Dunn’s nomination to be Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In response, Liz Hitchcock, Director of Safer Chemicals Healthy Families issued the following statement:

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Takeout food packaging from several leading U.S. grocery stores is likely treated with harmful PFAS chemicals, according to a new study released today by Safer Chemicals Healthy Families and Toxic-Free Future. PFAS are highly persistent and toxic chemicals whose widespread use has contaminated drinking water across the country.

Washington, D.C. — Today, Latino workers, environmental and public health advocates, and the mothers of two young men who recently died from methylene chloride exposure notified the Trump administration of their intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over its failure to finalize a ban on the use of this lethal chemical in paint strippers.

Washington, DC – Today, Congress took bipartisan action to protect drinking water from contamination by passing legislation that directs the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to allow airports to use firefighting foam free of highly fluorinated chemicals or PFAS. The use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam is responsible for drinking water contamination for millions of Americans.

Many communities have been calling on the federal government to help address the PFAS drinking water crisis. And this week Congress is working to address it in a couple of ways.

This week the House Energy and Commerce Environment Subcommittee held a hearing on perfluorinated (PFAS) chemicals in the environment. Millions of people across the United States are exposed to drinking water contaminated by toxic PFAS chemicals.

Few aspects of the new TSCA law have been at more risk than the section 5 premanufacture notice (PMN) program, which provides critical safeguards against unsafe new chemicals entering commerce. The amended law put considerably more teeth in this program, but from day one, the chemical industry has sought to block EPA from implementing the tougher review process that the law required.

Last week our allies achieved a big win for Americans’ health! A federal court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to move forward with a ban on chlorpyrifos—a toxic pesticide known to harm children’s brains that is used on many different crops, including nuts, apples and berries—within 60 days.