EPA bans TCE and PCE solvents [Video]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday banned the use of two ubiquitous cancer-causing solvents that activists have been targeting for decades.Related video above: Lee Zeldin chosen as Donald Trump’s EPA headThe ban involves trichloroethylene, or TCE, a cancer-causing chemical that is common in manufacturing and can be found in water sources and properties around the world, as well as all consumer uses and many commercial uses of perchloroethylene, or PCE, a solvent used in industries such as dry cleaning, manufacturing and automobile repair.“It’s simply unacceptable to continue to allow cancer-causing chemicals to be used for things like glue, dry cleaning or stain removers when safer alternatives exist,” Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said in a news release.The trouble with TCESince the 1920s, TCE has been one of the most frequently used solvents in industry. It’s a colorless volatile organic compound …