França toma medidas para eliminar o percloroetileno

The French Ministries of Ecology and Labour have announced a ban on the use of perchloroethylene in dry cleaning laundry facilities.

The use of the substance will not be permitted in new facilities. This ban will become effective immediately. Meanwhile, a total ban will be implemented in stages for different facilities, with a total ban effective from 1 January 2022.

The ministries have also asked the French National Agency for Food Safety, Environment and Labour (Anses) and the French National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks (Ineris) to evaluate the potenial risks associated with the products used to replace perchloroethylene.

French NGO Environment Health Network (RES) issued a statement welcoming the move. It had called in February, along with other environmental and health lobby groups, for the French government to follow the example of the US and Denmark and ban the use of perchloroethylene in new drycleaners.

California proíbe o percloroetileno na lavagem a seco

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that a California regulation that bans the use of the chemical perchloroethylene by dry-cleaning businesses would replace a less stringent federal rule in most parts of the state.

In 2007, the California Air Resources Board adopted the Airborne Toxic Control Measure to phase out dry cleaners' use of perchloroethylene, or perc, by 2023. The 1990 federal Clean Air Act requires dry cleaners only to limit, rather than eliminate, perc emissions.

Perc is a liquid solvent that is considered a hazardous air pollutant under the Clean Air Act and was identified by the California Air Resources Board as a toxic air contaminant one year later. Studies have also identified perc as a possible human carcinogen that can cause liver and kidney damage in rodents.

"The state rule will substitute for the federal rule, so there isn't dual regulation," said Mae Wang of the U.S. EPA's Air Standards Delegation. "Now California's state rule will be the rule that is enforceable by the federal EPA in California."

The EPA's approval of the California regulation, announced Monday, applies throughout the state except for incorporated cities within the four counties regulated by the South Coast Air Quality Managment District, which includes Los Angeles County. The AQMD has a perc ban similar to the one adopted by the state and is applying for its own EPA approval.

China denuncia práticas de dumping em importações da UE e EUA

O Ministério do Comércio da China denunciou hoje práticas de dumping em importações industriais de percloroetileno a partir da União Europeia e Estados Unidos.

Segundo a imprensa chinesa, o Ministério advertiu que as importações de percloroetileno, um derivado do cloro, da União Europeia e dos Estados Unidos provocaram "dano substancial na indústria nacional".

O organismo determinou que as empresas importadoras do produto devem pagar de forma preliminar uma tarifa junto da alfândega chinesa enquanto se aguarda a confirmação de práticas desleais.

Dinamarca reavalia os efeitos do tetracloroetileno na saúde humana

The Danish Environmental Protection Agency has published a report that reevaluates the human health effects from exposure to tetrachloroethylene. The report, which updates a 2001 study, includes a recommendation for a quality criterion for the substance in ambient air.

The report assesses whether current health-based air quality criterion should be revised based on new data, assessments and evaluations regarding the genotoxic and carcinogenic effects of tetrachloroethylene. It notes these effects have been the centre of an ongoing debate nationally as well as internationally. The study also considers repeated inhalation exposure. Other end points such as acute toxicity, irritation, sensitisation and toxicity to reproduction are only addressed briefly.

Latvia conducted the substance evaluation of carbon tetrachloride under the 2013 Community Rolling Action Plan and requested no additional data (CW 3 April 2014).  

Estudo indica ligação entre a doença de Parkinson a solventes industriais

An international study has linked an industrial solvent to Parkinson's disease.

Researchers found a six-fold increase in the risk of developing Parkinson's in individuals exposed in the workplace to trichloroethylene (TCE).

(...)

"The study also adjudged exposure to two other solvents, perchloroethylene (PERC) and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4), "tended towards significant risk of developing the disease"."

No statistical link was found with the other three solvents examined in the study - toluene, xylene and n-hexane.