Trichloroethylene (TCE) is an industrial solvent used primarily to make hydrofluorocarbon chemicals. TCE is primarily used as a metal degreasing agent to maintain military equipment, so it is frequently found in the groundwater at many military sites. It is also used as a refrigerant and as a spot remover in dry cleaning operations and can be found in some aerosol cleaning products.

TCE was added to the list of carcinogens in the “U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 14th Report on Carcinogens” in 2016.

In December 2016 and January 2017, the U.S. EPA proposed two rules to ban TCE in vapor degreasing, in commercial and consumer aerosol degreasing, and as a spot cleaner in dry cleaning.

These proposed regulatory actions follow a June 2014 TSCA Work Plan Chemical Risk Assessment for TCE that identified serious risks to workers associated with this TCE use and concluded that the chemical can cause a range of adverse health effects, including cancer, developmental and neurotoxicological effects, and toxicity to the liver.

However, in July 2017, house lawmakers are “quietly urging the administration to abandon proposed U.S. EPA regulations that would ban certain uses of three dangerous chemicals and restrict the number of hazardous waste reviews done by the Department of Health and Human Services.”

Once again, Big Business is choosing profits over health.

"The House is now telling the agency, 'Forget about that risk and defer any possible action on this chemical for years into the future,'" said Richard Denison, lead senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). "It's one more example of private interests trumping public health protections of the most basic sort."

Public health advocates are expressing outrage that lawmakers have urged the EPA to slow-walk the worker protections — just as industry groups requested.