EPA publishes methylene chloride compliance guide

The US Environmental Protection Agency has released a compliance guide to accompany its recent methylene chloride rule. The rule, finalized in April, bans most uses of the popular, yet hazardous, solvent.

The purpose of the guide is to help those who manufacture, process, distribute, use, or dispose of methylene chloride comply with the new regulation. Importantly for research labs, it details how these facilities can meet the EPA’s Workplace Chemical Protection Program (WCPP).

The WCPP includes a set of requirements intended to reduce worker exposure to methylene chloride. But since the EPA first proposed the program in 2023, academics and university environmental health and safety (EH&S) staff have expressed concerns about many elements of it.

In particular, they are critical of the stipulation that research labs conduct initial and periodic exposure monitoring, which such facilities aren’t required to do under existing regulations—such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Laboratory Standard—unless they exceed exposure limits.

At least one small institution has responded to the regulation by opting to phase out methylene chloride from its research and teaching labs. Several academic researchers have said they are considering doing the same. Laura Dwyer, the chemistry lab coordinator at the University of Mount Union, told C&EN that she was waiting for the EPA to release clear guidelines before deciding what to do.

EH&S personnel waiting for a clear compliance guide are unlikely to be satisfied, according to Kristi Ohr, assistant director of academic safety at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “I don’t think it really said anything other than what the regulation itself already says,” Ohr says. “I think what most people were hoping for was some more specific language,” especially around exposure monitoring.

Large institutions with large EH&S offices well-versed in exposure monitoring should be able to interpret the new guidelines, Ohr says. Small schools, on the other hand, are unlikely to have the needed expertise on campus.

“Having a clear-cut, ‘this is what you need to do’ would be good for them,” she says. Otherwise, they’ll need to outsource these services, which could be costly.