Vinyl chloride is a toxic, flammable, and explosive chemical that can set off a cascade of health impacts, including liver, brain, lung, and blood cancers. And yet the plastics industry uses billions of pounds each year to make everything from children’s toys to water pipes to food packaging.
EPA is about to assess the risks of the vinyl chloride to decide whether it presents an “unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment.” The science clearly shows it does.
Submit your comment to EPA now ahead of the March 3 deadline. Tell them that children, families, firefighters, and all people need to be protected from this potent carcinogen.
Tell EPA: Protect Families From Vinyl Chloride
Shockingly, EPA’s draft plans for the evaluation of vinyl chloride threaten to leave out “catastrophic accidents.” This is absurd. Vinyl chloride leaks, spills, fires, explosions, and other incidents have taken place an average of once every five days since 2010 in communities from Louisiana to Ohio.
These horrific events are absolutely “foreseeable.” The only questions are in whose backyard or workplace they will occur, and on which day.
Also shocking is that EPA plans leave out the risk to firefighters and other first responders. This would include the people who rushed in to protect East Palestine and surrounding communities from the disastrous Norfolk Southern train derailment and detonation in February 2023, and those who worked tirelessly to clean the waterways and remove the contaminated soils. Their courage and selflessness are commendable. They should not have to pay for it with their lives.
It’s time for EPA to protect our families by putting people’s health over petrochemical industry profits. EPA must take real action on vinyl chloride to protect communities across the U.S.