EPA Issues Draft Revisions to its Risk Determination for the Perchloroethylene (PCE) risk evaluation issued under the Toxic Substance Control Act

On June 30, 2022, EPA published a draft revision to its risk determination for perchloroethylene, also referred to as “PCE.” The draft revision proposed by EPA proposes to supersede the conditions of use previously issued in the 2020 PCE evaluation. Due to recent policy changes, EPA is replacing its condition of use-specific unreasonable risk determinations with a determination of unreasonable risk for PCE as a whole chemical substance driven by certain condition of uses.

As part of the revision, EPA is removing the assumption of personal protective equipment use by workers, which means that 60 out of 61 conditions of use evaluated would drive the determination that PCE presents an unreasonable risk of injury to human health under its conditions of use. These conditions of use include manufacturing, processing, preparation, recycling, and disposal of PCE, and apply to both commercial as well as industrial uses.

Comments are due on August 1, 2022.

Read the revised risk determination and submit comments.

Advocacy contact: Send an email to Tabby Zeb at tayyaba.zeb@sba.gov or call 202-798-7405.