The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has concluded that the rubber ingredient 1,3-butadiene, which it categories as a human carcinogen, which might present health dangers to industrial workers but poses no threat to the environment or those living close to facilities where the chemical is used. The conclusions, declared on New Years Eve, contrast with guidelines put in place at during Joe Biden’s presidency that needed corporations to observes the levels of the chemical in the air outside their plants.
Based on what the EPA explains as a ‘sturdy overview’ of 1,3-butadiene that integrated the results of about 10,000 studies from various sources, the corporation stated it has found ‘potential unreasonable health risks’ to works who can also inhale the chemical in 11 specific industrial settings at factories that make or use 1,3-butadiene to create rubber, plastics, and different products. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer also categorizes the chemical as ‘carcinogenic to humans’.
The EPA stated its findings demonstrate the use of personal protective gadget (PPE) in these workplace environments will support mitigate health dangers related with 1,3- butadiene. Moreover, the corporation also concluded that there is no proof the chemical poses unreasonable danger to the environment or the general population, which include people residing near factories that use the chemical. The latter conclusion contrasts with the EPA’s previous clean air standards for chemical plants that were finalised in April 2024.
‘EPA’s analysis, which tested effects from facility releases on surrounding groups within 0.3 to 31 miles, did not find unreasonable dangers to the environment, for consumers, or to the general population including people living near factories,’ the corporation stated in a announcement.
The Biden-era guidelines, which aimed to reduce dangerous emissions by using nearly 80%, set objectives for six pollution, consisting of 1,3-butadiene. The rule protected a demand for those centers to display fencelines for chemical substances like 1,three-butadiene, and mandated that the EPA make such facts publicly to be had to better tell and protect close by communities.
Moreover, under leadership of attorney-turned-politician Lee Zeldin, set up by the Trump administration in January 2025, the EPA has started formally reconsidering dozens of environmental regulations – together with the clean air standards for chemical plants put in place by Biden in 2024. The corporation defines this effort as the ‘biggest deregulatory action in US history’.
Plastic additives
The agency also declared on 31 December that it will enforce dozens of applications of 5-broadly used phthalates to deal with environmental and workplace risks connected to these chemicals. The corporation stated this decision was primarily based on final danger evaluations for each of these chemicals, which include butyl benzyl phthalate, dibutyl phthalate, dicyclohexyl phthalate, diethylhexyl phthalate and diisobutyl phthalate. These are typically used inside the production of flexible plastics and, the agency notes, are endocrine disruptors with the capacity to cause hormone deficiencies.
Next, the EPA plans to create guidelines to remove the identified unreasonable dangers that phthalates pose to employee protection and the environment. The organization says it will carry out ‘big consultation’ with employees, businesses, labour groups, and communities to ‘broaden targeted, practical protections’ that make sure worker protection and environmental safety. In addition, the corporation says that it will to ‘carefully’ compare to PPE, engineering controls, and optional techniques to protect those populations most at risk from phthalates.
