EPA is delaying worker protection deadlines for two hazardous solvents, formalizing extensions for requirements that in some cases lapsed months ago.
The final rule, scheduled for publication in Tuesday’s Federal Register, pushes back deadlines requiring facilities handling perchloroethylene (PCE) and carbon tetrachloride (CTC) to begin monitoring air levels, providing respirators and enforcing other Biden-era chemical exposure restrictions.
Nonfederal facilities using PCE were supposed to complete initial exposure monitoring by December 2025 and meet the exposure limit by March. Those deadlines are now June 2027 and September 2027, respectively. The agency also gave facilities until December 2027 to implement an exposure control plan.
Facilities using CTC also have an extra year to initiate air monitoring and enforce exposure limit requirements.
