EPA vinyl chloride debate asks: Is it a safe feedstock or a rogue chemical?

Vinyl chloride is either a chemical that's been shown to be safe as a feedstock for making PVC or it's a rogue carcinogen that warrants much more scrutiny and regulation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Those are some of the perspectives EPA is getting as it launches the first phase of a multiyear review of vinyl chloride monomer and four other legacy chemicals under federal toxic substances laws.

Formal comments to EPA — from environmental groups that have pushed for the review, the vinyl industry and others — are just beginning to be made public after a March 18 deadline to file them.

Plastics News is taking an early look at a few of them.

Industry supporters are pointing to big improvements since health and safety problems with vinyl chloride monomer were found in the 1970s. Environmentalists, however, say federal oversight is weak and communities need protection from exposure risks like the train derailment and VCM burnoff last year in East Palestine, Ohio.

In some cases, other groups are welcoming the additional scrutiny for VCM.

The Association of State Drinking Water Administrators told EPA it was vital to study potential health risks of vinyl chloride, given the widespread use of PVC water pipes.

"ASDWA particularly supports EPA's inclusion of vinyl chloride in this notice," it said. "The agency must ensure that vinyl chloride does not leach from these pipes, which would become a significant concern to the public. Therefore, reliable, peer-reviewed data to understand exposure and public health risks is vital to ensure appropriate regulatory actions are taken in the future."

EPA calls VCM is a known human carcinogen.

But the Vinyl Institute, in a detailed filing to EPA, ran through studies and government reviews like one from the European Chemicals Agency, or ECHA, from November, that it said demonstrate the safety of VCM as it is used and made now.

"An accurate scientific review will continue to show the safety of our manufacturing and our products," VI said.

The industry group pointed to the ECHA study as evidence that current regulations in the U.S., including the Toxic Substances Control Act, are working to control exposure.

"This assessment by ECHA demonstrates that at the levels permitted, the European vinyl industry is controlling exposures to its workers, to the environment, and to users of PVC products," VI said. "The U.S. vinyl industry is already operating at permitted levels which are at or below those set in Europe."

"We encourage EPA to acknowledge that the existing federally enforceable regulations are adequate and will continue to serve the public interest without any additional unnecessary regulatory burden set through TSCA," the VI said.

The vinyl group said no cases of a rare liver cancer, angiosarcoma, have been found in industry workers since exposure limits of 1 part per million was established in 1974 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Similarly, it quoted the ECHA report and European industry data that said no cases of angiosarcoma have been reported in VCM and PVC industry workers since workplace controls were implemented.

VI said that better controls in the industry have reduced VCM emissions even as PVC production has grown. It said PVC production in the U.S. is up 91 percent since 1987, but ambient emissions of VCM are down 86 percent on a per pound basis in that time.

"Since 1974, the industry has a demonstrated track record of improving the health, safety, and environmental profile of VC production, as well as its use as the main feedstock in the production of PVC," VI said.

The industry group told the EPA that VCM is essential to making PVC for pipes, electrical cables, medical devices like IV bags and tubing, windows and roofing membranes and components to make cars lighter and more fuel-efficient.

As well, it said that vinyl chloride is used to make climate-friendly refrigerants and blowing agents that are critical to replacing hydrofluorocarbons that have higher global warming risks.

The federal government in 1974 banned the use of VCM as a propellant in hair spray and aerosol cosmetics over concerns about consumer exposure.

VI said that today, VCM is chemically converted into materials like PVC before it reaches consumers but said residual vinyl chloride may be "entrained in the polymer matrix."

It said the industry uses voluntary standards from groups like the National Sanitation Foundation.

"To advance consumer and environmental protection, industry has implemented programs that evaluate articles for the presence of VC," VI said. "In many cases, industry complies with voluntary consensus-based standards, such as NSF/ANSI-61 for drinking water pipes."

The vinyl group said vinyl chloride is "rarely detected" in drinking water systems. It said a 2010 EPA review of drinking water contaminants found VCM exceeding standards for only 14,000 people out of 226 million people under drinking water systems covered by the review.

Three environmental organizations that have pushed the EPA for tighter limits on vinyl chloride questioned the effectiveness of those standards because they are voluntary.

In their filing, they pointed to VI data that at least 95 pipe samples between 1998 and 2015 exceeded those voluntary limits and that many of the non-compliant pipes were produced offshore.

"The only potential 'safeguard' against contamination of drinking water from PVC pipes is the standards for drinking water systems materials established in NSF/ANSI… which was created by NSF International, an industry-dominated private standard setting body," the groups said. "Compliance with this standard is not mandated by federal law."

Those groups — Beyond Plastics, EarthJustice and Toxic-Free Future — said the Safe Drinking Water Act does not require testing for VCM at the tap, and they said "at least one high-quality study" has found VCM leaching from PVC pipes into drinking water.

"Given the evidence that some PVC pipes have leached VCM, and the significant public health concerns that would be present if PVC pipe is exposing the general population to residual VCM even at very low levels, EPA should include this pathway of exposure for purposes of prioritization and scoping of the vinyl chloride risk evaluation," they said.

The groups had made a high-profile push in 2023 to have EPA include vinyl chloride among the five legacy chemicals it would prioritize for TSCA review.

In December, the EPA announced it would put VCM in that group, meaning it could face a two-step review.

Currently, EPA is conducting a 12-month study of each chemical. It will then use that review to decide if it should then launch a more detailed, multi-year study on each, which could lead to restrictions on use.

EPA's decision to include VCM in the review has come under scrutiny on Capitol Hill. One U.S. senator at a January hearing on TSCA questioned whether the agency could be fair in evaluating VCM, but other senators at the hearing backed the agency's decision.

In their filing, Beyond Plastics and its allies also pointed to accidents at factories and in transporting the chemical, like the Ohio rail car spill in 2023, as evidence that better standards are needed to limit exposure.

They pointed to a January report from TFF that said 3 million U.S. residents are within a 1-mile evacuation zone along the path of the train that derailed in East Palestine, as it traveled from Texas to New Jersey.

They said there have been nearly 1,000 unplanned releases of vinyl chloride from factories between 2010 and 2023, as well as 28 incidents since 1968 where vinyl chloride-carrying tank cars have derailed.

The sheer number of such incidents means EPA should consider them a "predictable feature" of VCM manufacture and use, and factor that into its review, the groups said.

The groups also pointed to some communities like Mossville, La., where people had to abandon homes because of VCM pollution.

And they argued that there's potential for consumer exposure to VCM through some adhesives and glues. They also said one educational toy maker, Excelligence Learning Corp., recently told government officials in Oregon, Vermont and Washington that vinyl chloride was detected at more than 0.1 percent in its products.

They called for stronger federal oversight to make TSCA more effective.

"There is no federal regulatory limit on vinyl chloride in children's products, no mandatory standards limiting residual VCM in domestically manufactured or imported PVC, and no requirements to report the presence of vinyl chloride in consumer products (other than a few states that require reporting for children's products)," they said. "Given the extent that PVC is used in building materials, packaging, clothing, medical devices and many other products, exposure to residual vinyl chloride could be significant."