Advocacy Group Calls For Expedited Chemical Bans After Tenn. Workplace Fatality

Environmental advocates this week renewed their calls for a prompt ban on certain paint stripping chemicals after the death of a 21-year-old Tennessee man.

Kevin Hartley was refinishing a bathtub for his family's business in late April when he was overcome by chemical fumes, the Ashland City Times reported last month.

Environmental Defense Fund project manager Lindsay McCormick wrote Monday that although the incident remains under investigation, methylene chloride exposure is suspected to be the cause.

Methylene chloride is used in paint-removing products, spray paint, adhesives and insect sprays. It is linked to cancer, headaches and dizziness, and a 2015 study found that acute exposure caused dozens of sudden deaths since 1980.

The Environmental Protection Agency last year included the chemical among the first 10 substances it would study under new federal chemical laws, but the agency could take up to two years to implement new restrictions on those materials or ban them outright.

The EDF recently urged the agency to finalize bans "as soon as possible" on both methylene chloride and another common paint-removing chemical known as N-methylpyrrolidone.

"Unless EPA acts promptly to finalize a ban, there will surely be more avoidable deaths and other health impacts due to use of high-risk chemical paint strippers," McCormick wrote.