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It was too late for him to make a profit, but Daniel Kinnell felt relieved in December when the Environmental Protection Agency ultimately banned TCE. According to independent research and the EPA, compounds used in dry cleaning, manufacturing and degreasing machines can cause cancer, organ damage and potentially fatal heart defects. It has also been shown to significantly increase the likelihood of people developing Parkinson’s disease.
Kinnell and his three colleagues were diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. They all worked at a law firm in Rochester, New York. They sat next to a dry cleaner that had dumped TCE into the soil. Kinel was diagnosed with a neurodegenerative condition at the age of 43 after working for seven years. His three colleagues later passed away. At least 15 company partners have developed cancers associated with TCE.
“It feels good to finally get rid of this terrible chemical,” Kinnel said. “My children and grandchildren will be protected.”
But his sense of comfort was short-lived.
The ban was challenged on multiple fronts as President Donald Trump took office for the second time in January. Republicans in the Senate and House have introduced resolutions to abolish the ban. This was issued just before the inauguration and was vulnerable to being overturned through the Parliamentary Review Act. Meanwhile, businesses and trade groups have sued to stop the ban in court. Trump’s executive order delayed the implementation of the ban until March 21st. Last week, the EPA called on the federal court of appeals to further delay the ban until the end of May.
TCE, short for trichloroethylene, is one of five toxic substances introduced by the EPA under President Joe Biden. The Trump administration told the court they wanted to confirm all five bans and decide whether they should be rewind. These prohibited substances include deadly paint strippers called methylene chloride. Solvents similar to PCE and TCE. Carbon tetrachloride used as a cleaning solution. Mineral asbestos is the cause of cancer. Lawyer David Fotouhee, Trump, was appointed prime minister of the agency, but in October he tried to overturn the asbestos ban, where he worked as a lawyer for a group of automobile companies. The EPA classifies all recently banned chemicals as either carcinogenic or perhaps carcinogenic.
However, the EPA’s TCE ban is at greater risk than others because it has not yet been in effect. The ban on chemicals was to launch this year for all consumer applications and many industrial and commercial uses. The EPA has been phased out more slowly and gradually for more than a dozen industrial applications, including some aerospace and defense applications. In such cases, the Biden EPA required employers to provide health protection to workers in contact with TCE. The Trump EPA’s recent petition to the federal court of appeals to extend the delay in the ban also means that employers do not need to implement new health protections for workers.
Delaying the ban means people continue to be exposed to chemicals, causing liver cancer, kidney cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and deadly infant heart holes. TCE is currently infiltrating drinking water for more than 17 million people in the US, according to data compiled by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group. Though there are more alternatives in its use, TCE is now infiltrating drinking water for more than 17 million people in the US. A dangerous plume of TCE has been identified in Woburn, Massachusetts. Wichita, Kansas; Hundreds of service members developed Parkinson’s disease and cancer at Camp LeJune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina. New York’s Long Island is another TCE plume, adjacent to the district that EPA administrator Lee Zeldin represented in Congress.
The idea that people are still exposed to TCE infuriates Jerry Ensminger. The chemical “needs to go away,” said the retired Marine Deputy Sergeant, an outspoken advocate for military families exposed to TCE. Ensminger’s daughter Janey died of leukemia at the age of nine. Ensminger says Janey became pregnant at Camp Lejeune and the family lived there for most of the first mid-pregnancy of her first pregnancy, then returned when she was six years old. Ensminger recalls seeing basic dip truck engine workers in the late 1970s and early 1980s on TCE’s vast metal Vats.
Scientists began raising concerns about the toxicity of TCE almost a century ago. EPA’s research on chemicals progressed slowly. In 1987 it was considered a “potential carcinogenicity in humans.” In 2001, the EPA draft assessment found that the chemicals were more toxic than previously thought and were more likely to cause cancer. The conclusion was attacked by several industrial and government scientists. The Department of Defense, which is responsible for hundreds of TCE contamination sites, criticized the report based on “junk science.” However, two reviews by a panel of independent scientists found the rating to be healthy. Still, the EPA did not begin drafting stricter regulations on TCE until President Barack Obama’s administration was over.
These efforts were hit during Trump’s first term when the EPA undermined reports of the effects of TCE on fetal heart abnormalities and stopped work on new regulations. Before joining the first Trump administration, Nancy Beck, a high-level lobbyist for the American Chemistry Council, an industry trade group, presided over the EPA’s chemical program when he was pulled back from the TCE ban, and more broadly withdrawn from rules the chemical industry deemed a burden.
After returning to the private sector, Beck was recently appointed as the main assistant assistant manager of the EPA’s Department of Chemical Safety and Pollution Control. She did not respond to requests for comment.
With her appointment, environmentalists were despairing the long-awaited fate of the ban on TCE.
“The same industry lobbyists who previously worked on the EPA’s chemical program are back,” said Daniel Rosenberg, director of federal toxicology policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “When she was there for the first time, she moved the heavens and the earth to weaken the chemical ratings and downplayed the dangers TCE had posed to people’s health. That seems to be heading again.”
Over 100 groups representing public health, environmental and community interests recently sent a letter to Zeldin, urging them to reinstate the TCE ban. Referring to Zeldin’s declared interest in clean water, the letter estimated that the rules would bring $20 million in health benefits from lower cancer rates, and stated that “delaying the implementation of these rules will lead to preventable death, illness, incapacity and increased difficulties for families and communities.” This week, the Environment and Labor Group submitted a court summary against the EPA’s efforts to delay the implementation of the TCE ban.
The EPA did not answer questions about the TCE ban. Senator John Kennedy, who introduced a resolution to abolish the Senate’s ban on TCE, and R-Iowa’s Rep. Mariannett Miller Meek and Diana Hirschberger, who introduced a resolution to abolish it in the House, also did not respond to inquiries from the producers. A spokesman for the American Council of Chemicals introduced Propublica in a December press release. This acknowledged that the EPA included “significant adjustments” to the TCE ban to provide flexibility to affected industries.
In a press release on his bid to abolish the ban, Kennedy said “the Biden administration has fought a war against American chemical producers,” and he urged Congress to “moves quickly to unlock the handcuffs President Biden has placed in Louisiana and American businesses.” In the same release, Harshbarger described the TCE ban as “one of many examples of overregulation in the Biden administration.”
During a January House hearing on chemical regulation, Harshbarger said Microporous, in her district, which manufactures membranes used in lithium-ion batteries, faces “existential threats” from the TCE ban. This ban set an exception for using TCE for this purpose, allowing the battery industry to continue using it until 2044. This disputed the court ban, Microporous, did not answer questions about why it would take 20 years to find a suitable alternative to TCE.
Since Trump took office, the EPA has promoted efforts to roll back environmental protections. Earlier this month, the agency announced “The Most Consequential Deregulation Day in US History.” The agency celebrated the announcement with a 6,500-word press release that includes praise from 61 industry leaders, CEOs and Republican politicians.
Still, some of those focused on TCE were surprised that the Trump administration was delaying and reconsidering the recent ban. “I thought it was done,” said Dr. Sarah Whittintum, a retired U.S. Air Force flight surgeon who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 46. “What the hell is it, why can’t anyone care about this?” she said. “This should be a nonpartisan issue.”
Whittingham believes her illness could stem from two years she spent as an aircraft maintenance officer at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas from 1996 to 1998.
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Last week, Whittingham collaborated with two friends. Both are Air Force graduates diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease as women in their 40s, urged people to pressure Congress to drop a resolution.
“We signed up to fight for our country,” she said, but now the attitude is, “We don’t care about your health, you already signed on the dotted line.” It’s kind of a facial kick. ”
Before being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Whittingham wanted the children to follow her career path. However, recently she has discouraged her high school senior daughter from joining the military. She said the health risks are too high.
