Despite plans to advance an Obama-era proposal to regulate a paint stripping chemical under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), recently released EPA documents suggest the agency will not soon pursue other proposed TSCA rules restricting uses of two other substances blamed for risks to workers, a move that is worrying environmentalists.
September 16, 2026
EPA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in a critical new report is detailing challenges facing the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), including that leadership lacks authority to address board members' policy violations, and that the Trump administration's proposals to eliminate CSB are harming efforts to attract and retain employees.
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EPA is further narrowing its approach for assessing the risks of the first 10 “existing” chemicals it is reviewing for possible regulation under the new Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), issuing problem formulation documents that preclude consideration of risks that programs administered by other agencies, such as OSHA, are already addressing.
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After years of additional study and scientific review, EPA has again preliminarily found that formaldehyde poses leukemia and other cancer risks, according to three Democratic senators who also say the draft finding has prompted Trump EPA appointees to block release of the assessment and they are urging Administrator Scott Pruitt to quickly release it.
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Lowe's hardware store chain is planning to phase out paint strippers containing methylene chloride and N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) from its global product selection by the end of the year, an announcement that comes days after EPA reversed course and pledged to complete a landmark Obama-era rule regulating similar uses of the chemical.
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Vanessa Allen Sutherland, who the Obama administration appointed to lead the federal board that investigates industrial chemical accidents, announced unexpectedly May 21 that she will be resigning from the board next month, though it is not clear if or who President Trump will select to fill two vacant slots on the panel given his administration's push to eliminate it.
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The Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) recent guidance calling for product labels to warn of acute inhalation hazards of paint strippers containing methylene chloride could give EPA an alternative to calls for a first-time ban on some uses of the substance, such as industry calls to promote risk management options.
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Amid lobbying by families of consumers and workers killed from exposure to the paint-stripper chemical methylene chloride, EPA has reversed course, saying it now intends to soon finalize an Obama-era rule expected to ban certain uses of the substance, though environmentalists are cautioning that the final rule should preserve the proposed ban.
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The Trump administration's upcoming defense of EPA rules implementing the recently revised toxics law will mark one of the first substantive tests for how well new regulations will withstand legal scrutiny after the agency suffered a series of early court losses as they sought to defend other regulatory delays and officials are scrambling to correct perceived flaws in several draft rules.
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Anticipating procedural challenges from EPA, environmentalists are making the case that an appellate court should consider the merits of their litigation challenging the agency's framework for reviewing new chemicals, charging the policy has the effect of a legislative rule, was issued without following proper rulemaking procedure, and should be vacated.
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