1:06
- ABC News
- August 1, 2018
EPA urged to act on toxic chemicals
Lawmakers say the EPA has not been following a law on regulating chemicals.
1:06
Hackett said her community is dealing with contamination from other chemicals in addition to PFOA, including something called Trichloroethylene, or TCE, that is used to degrease metals and causes cancer in humans, according to the EPA.
The EPA, CDC, and international agencies list TCE as a \"known human carcinogen\" and the EPA has been studying TCE as far back as 2011.
\"We don't know the chemical cocktail of what our children are now being exposed to and have been exposed to. We don't know what's going to happen and as we watch our kids get sick and get cancer, you can't grasp in your head all the chemicals in their little bodies,\" Hackett told ABC News. \"And we shouldn't have to be, especially something TCE, a human carcinogen, it should have been banned a while ago. It makes no sense.\"
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who is not on the committee that met with Wheeler, held a press conference with Hackett and other families and activists calling for the EPA to ban the use of TCE.
The Trump @EPA has never met a toxic chemical it doesn’t like. The EPA’s job is to protect public health. Our request is simple: take #TCE off the shelves before more Americans are hurt.
— Tom Udall (@SenatorTomUdall) August 1, 2018
In the hearing Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. said the EPA under Pruitt announced that it would not consider all the possible ways that people are exposed to chemicals like TCE and postponed an effort to ban the chemical.
\"The scaling back of our bipartisan chemical safety law, one of the prouder moments that I've had as a senator, was set in motion by Scott Pruitt and I'm really hopeful that you're going to reverse course on what I think is a bad decision,\" Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/cory-booker-gty-jef-180801_hpEmbed_3x2_384.jpg\")
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., also asked Wheeler to make chemicals used in nonstick products and firefighting foams that have been found in drinking water and groundwater across the country a priority. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., also asked that a report into the health effects of exposure to formaldehyde be released.
Wheeler said the EPA is looking at exposure to chemicals like TCE through the water or air and that the agency is working to move on a ban for a paint stripping chemical called methylene chloride and to release the formaldehyde report.
\"It is tragic for any chemical to cause the death of a child and my heart goes out to those families impacted by that. Absolutely we need to be moving forward to do something on TCE and these other chemicals,\" Wheeler said.
Pruitt previously met with families of people who died from inhaling methylene chloride fumes and told the same committee in May that he would be moving \"shortly\" to regulate or ban the chemical.
\"There's a lot of families from the paint stripping chemicals to those that are sitting behind you right now that are really relying on you to save lives. There are extraordinary injustices going on with this kind of inaction by your agency and I hope you'll move with all deliberate speed to address these concerns,\" Booker said.
The EPA is currently holding public meetings and working to declare PFOA and a related chemical PFOS as \"hazardous.\" The agency says it expects to have a plan this fall.
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