It’s glymes time: EPA takes on obscure chemicals in consumer products.
Hardly anyone has heard of them, but millions of pounds of glymes are used every year to make household products. Now time is running out for glymes – at least when it comes to new uses in consumer products. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it plans to clamp down on these little-known ingredients used by a broad array of industries, including manufacturers of lithium batteries, inkjet cartridges, paints, prescription drugs and microchips. Three glymes pose a “high concern to workers, consumers and children” because they may have reproductive or developmental effects, the EPA says. A study more than a decade ago found links to miscarriages among semiconductor plant workers.
By Jane Kay
Environmental Health News
Aug. 8, 2011Hardly anyone has heard of them, but millions of pounds of glymes are used every year to make household products throughout the United States.Now time is running out for glymes – at least when it comes to new uses in consumer products.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced in July that it plans to clamp down on these little-known ingredients used by a broad array of industries. Used mostly as solvents, glymes are found in lithium batteries, inkjet cartridges, brake fluid, paints and carpet cleaners. They are also widely used to make prescription drugs, printed circuit boards and microchips.The EPA determined that three glymes pose a “high concern to workers, consumers and children” because they may have reproductive or developmental effects. A U.S. study more than a decade ago found links to miscarriages among workers in semiconductor manufacturing.
The EPA has proposed a new rule for glymes as one of its few weapons authorized by the federal Toxic Substances Control Act. If adopted, it would let the agency restrict new uses of 14 glymes in the U.S. marketplace.
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