美国国家公共电台 NPR Retailers Plan To Clear Deadly Paint Removers From Shelves, As EPA Delays Ban

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Families across the United States are fighting with the federal government over a deadly chemical. Dozens of people have died from inhaling 1 methylene chloride. This is an ingredient in common paint removers. NPR's Rebecca Hersher reports.

REBECCA HERSHER, BYLINE 2: In October 2017, a 31-year-old named Drew Wynne decided 3 to upgrade the walk-in fridge at his small coffee company in North Charleston, S.C.

CINDY WYNNE: (Laughter). Drew was gregarious 4. He was brilliant in his coffee business.

HERSHER: That's his mom, Cindy. Anyway, the floor of the cold-brew coffee fridge needed new paint. So Drew went to a hardware store and bought a can of Goof 5 Off paint stripper. On October 13, 2017, his business partner found him collapsed 6 on the floor of the fridge. Cindy Wynne spoke 7 to South Carolina Public Radio's Victoria Hansen around the one-year anniversary of her son's death.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

VICTORIA HANSEN, BYLINE: Hard to believe it's been a year.

WYNNE: It is. It is. And we don't consider it an anniversary because we all - our family feels anniversaries are something you celebrate. You don't celebrate a death of your child.

HERSHER: Drew died of suffocation 8. According to the coroner's report, the culprit was a chemical called methylene chloride. It's an ingredient in popular products with brand names like Goof Off, Strypeeze, Klean Strip and Jasco, among others. Methylene chloride has killed at least 58 people since 1980. And because of all those deaths, a few years ago the Environmental Protection Agency started studying methylene chloride, trying to figure out if it should be banned altogether.

So walk me through it. How does the EPA decide to ban a chemical?

RICHARD ENGLER: So there are a variety of mechanisms 9 for...

HERSHER: Richard Engler is a former chemist at the EPA. Now he works for a big D.C. law firm called Bergeson and Campbell. He gamely explained the mind-numbingly boring, very thorough process the EPA uses to figure out whether a chemical is too dangerous for consumers.

ENGLER: What are the exposure levels? What are the circumstances? Are they working in enclosed space? Are they working outside?

HERSHER: It took years to finish asking all those questions. But in 2017, they finally had an answer.

ENGLER: EPA proposed banning the paint removal use for methylene chloride. So you wouldn't be able to go to a store and buy it.

HERSHER: Because it was too dangerous. According to the EPA, methylene chloride and another chemical, called NMP, posed, quote, "unreasonable 10 risks to consumers." That was in January 2017, 10 months before drew Wynne died. Today the ban is still pending 11. A spokesperson for the EPA would not confirm when it might be finalized 12. The companies that make methylene chloride, represented by the Halogenated Solvents 13 Industry Alliance, also declined to comment for this story.

One thing that's clear, though - the companies that manufacture the chemical were not happy. They pressured the EPA to delay the rule, all of which has been so frustrating 14 for Cindy Wynne and her family. Faced with federal inaction, the Wynnes and others have taken another approach, going directly to retailers 15.

WYNNE: Retailers are really the ones where people come in totally unknowing and pick up the product and buy it.

HERSHER: She worked with the chemical safety advocacy group Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families to pressure big chains. So far, Lowe's, Home Depot 16, Sherwin-Williams and a handful of others have agreed to stop selling products that contain methylene chloride and NMP by the end of the year. And a team of scientists at the University of Massachusetts announced last month that they've developed a safer alternative to methylene chloride that's equally effective. It should be available to consumers early in 2019. To Wynne, just one thing is missing, the promised federal ban.

WYNNE: That's what we're waiting for is EPA.

HERSHER: A couple weeks ago, the mothers of two other men who died of methylene chloride exposure told the EPA they'll sue if a rule isn't finalized by the end of December. Rebecca Hersher, NPR News.