Alexandra Dunn, assistant administrator of the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said the agency has determined that methylene chloride — a product that major home-improvement retailers, such as Lowe’s and Home Depot, have pulled from their shelves — presents “an unreasonable risk of injury.”

“We answered the call from many affected families to ensure that no other family experiences the death of someone close to them due to this chemical,” Dunn told reporters in a conference call.

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The agency will solicit comments over the next 60 days on whether to impose new federal training requirements on commercial operators, Dunn said, to determine whether it needs to limit access under those circumstances. That move drew immediate fire from public health advocates and the family members of those who died after inhaling its fumes.

Wendy Hartley, whose 21-year-old son, Kevin, died two years ago while refinishing a bathtub even after being trained in how to apply the paint stripper, said the administration’s new rules fall short.

“I am deeply disappointed that the EPA has decided to weaken its proposed ban on methylene chloride,” Hartley said in a statement. “Getting this deadly chemical out of consumers’ hands is a step in the right direction — a step that was started by retailers nationwide. Workers who use methylene chloride will now be left unprotected and at risk of health issues or death. I will continue my fight until the EPA does its job.”

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Hartley, who personally appealed in May to then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to ban the chemical, has now joined the advocacy groups Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families and the Vermont Public Interest Research Group in suing the EPA in federal court in Vermont.

However, Brian Wynne — whose brother Drew died in October 2017 after applying paint stripper to the floor of his start-up coffee company in North Charleston, S.C., — in a phone interview described the move as a key step given the current anti-regulatory climate in Washington.

“You take a win when you can get a win. And in this climate, a win is almost impossible,” said Wynne, who along with his parents, brother, wife and son joined EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler for the signing of the rule. “It would be impossible for a person like my brother to procure it now.”

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The EPA proposed an outright ban on methylene chloride and another lethal solvent, NMP, on Jan. 19, 2017, the day before President Barack Obama left office, saying they posed “unreasonable risks” to human health. Trump administration officials have repeatedly promised to remove methylene chloride from the market, while remaining silent on the fate of NMP.

The regulation the EPA finalized Friday reflects a compromise with the Pentagon, which lobbied for a carve-out given the military’s widespread use of paint strippers on bases across the globe. Under the Obama administration’s proposal, the Defense Department received a 10-year exemption on the grounds of national security.

Manufacturers of methylene-chloride-based strippers, including the Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance, have argued that the product is safe as long as those using it have adequate training. In a statement Friday, the group said it was sorry to see the chemical phased out of the consumer market but was “pleased” to see that the EPA would consider establishing a federal training and certification program.

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“Methylene chloride’s efficacy is unmatched and it has been safely used for over sixty years,” the group said.

But public outrage over the chemical’s potential risks has escalated in recent years, as advocates shared their stories with lawmakers and regulators about family members who died of exposure to methylene chloride. A dozen people who specialized in refinishing bathtubs died between 2000 and 2011, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), who co-wrote the chemical safety law that the EPA used to limit methylene chloride, said the agency had “failed to live up to the letter and spirit” of the bipartisan law. South Carolina’s two Republican senators, Tim Scott and Lindsey O. Graham, had also pressed the administration to ban it.

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“EPA’s action today is a watered-down protection that apparently values industry profits at the expense of public health and safety — particularly for the hard-working people who will still be risking their lives with exposure to these deadly products,” Udall said.

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Dunn said if the agency decides the chemical cannot be used safely in commercial operations, it could determine that it also poses an unreasonable risk to public health, “which could be banning it or restricting its use in some way.”

While it could take more than eight months for methylene chloride to be banned from retail sale to consumers, Dunn added that she expected it to be phased out much sooner because many stores have stopped selling it. “We are absolutely pleased to see that happening,” she said.