EPA Extends Compliance Deadlines for Methylene Chloride Final Rule
EPA has extended several deadlines for compliance with its May 2024 final rule that banned most uses of methylene chloride under the Toxic Substances and Control Act. Industrial and commercial facilities in which methylene chloride is used that are not operated by federal agencies or contractors have an additional 18 months to meet the workplace chemical protection program (WCPP) requirements set by the May 2024 rule. After the deadline extension rule goes into effect on Dec. 15, non-federal laboratories will share the same compliance dates as federally operated and contracted labs. Facilities will have until Nov. 9, 2026, to comply with initial monitoring requirements, until Feb. 8, 2027, to establish regulated areas and comply with the existing chemical exposure limit (ECEL) for methylene chloride, and until May 10, 2027, to comply with EPA’s exposure limits and develop and implement exposure control plans. The final rule establishes an ECEL for methylene chloride of 2 ppm as an eight-hour, time-weighted average. The OSHA permissible exposure limit for methylene chloride is 25 ppm as an eight-hour TWA.
The pre-publication notice states that EPA is extending these deadlines to “mitigate the unanticipated hardships inadvertently created for non-Federal laboratories by the WCPP compliance dates” established by the 2024 final rule. Comments received by the agency described challenges in complying with the WCPP requirements, such as the inability to substitute less toxic solvents when using EPA-mandated analytical methods and the cost of employing industrial hygienists to conduct initial monitoring.
Aligning the compliance deadlines for federal and non-federal labs will lessen the risk of these functions being disrupted and minimize confusion, according to EPA.
The notice announcing the deadline extension appears in today's Federal Register. For more information, see EPA’s webpage on risk management for methylene chloride and the 2024 final rule.
Related: An article in the April 2025 issue of The Synergist highlights the challenges of complying with the methylene chloride final rule as originally promulgated.