Court tosses EPA restrictions on highly toxic paint stripper chemical

A federal appeals court this week threw out an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule that banned most uses of a highly toxic chemical used as a paint stripper.

The EPA has said that the chemical in question, known as methylene chloride (MC), is “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.” When it put forward the rule in 2024 , the EPA also said that the substance had caused at least 88 deaths from short-term exposure since 1980.

However, this week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with industry challengers to the EPA’s restrictions, saying the agency went too far.

“At every juncture of its scientific analysis, EPA has gone with the most extreme position,” said the opinion , from Reagan appointees Patrick Higginbotham and Edith Jones, as well as George W. Bush appointee Leslie Southwick.

In particular, the judges said that the agency “it discounted relevant human studies despite decades of MC’s use without significant adverse epidemiological findings” and assumed that workers would not use personal protective equipment, among other issues.

They also wrote that the EPA “failed to adequately consider profound economic consequences of its regulation or the limited availability of alternatives that are economically and technically feasible.”

The rule was put forward by the Biden administration. The Trump administration also defended it in court, though it has said it would reconsider parts of the rule, including its assumption that workers would not wear protective equipment.

The American Chemistry Council, a trade group representing the chemical industry, cheered the ruling in a written statement. The group also said that it appreciates “the current EPA’s efforts to bring greater transparency, stakeholder engagement, and regulatory certainty to TSCA [Toxic Substances Control Act] implementation, and this ruling provides an important foundation for that work.”

However, health advocates criticized the court decision.

“This ruling sides with the chemical industry at the expense of public health and will put more people at risk of serious harm, including death from acute exposure, cancer, and kidney and liver toxicity from long-term exposures,” said Liz Hitchcock, director of federal policy at Toxic-Free Future, in a written statement.