EPA Asks Experts To Weigh Danger

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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
EPA Asks Experts To Weigh Danger Of Solvent TCE
By John J. Fialka
February 23, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Regulators are convening a panel of scientists here this
week to examine new evidence that a widely used industrial solvent might
be as much as 60 times more toxic than thought, a possibility that could
add billions of dollars to cleanup efforts.

The meeting, convened by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is
the first step in settling a question that has troubled scientists for
more than a decade because the solvent, trichloroethylene, widely known
as TCE, is suspected of causing cancer in humans. The long-lived
chemical is capable of polluting groundwater and then seeping as a vapor
into homes and buildings.

TCE, which has been proved to cause liver cancer in mice and kidney
tumors in rats, cleans metal and machine parts. Most of the sites
contaminated by its use date from the 1940s through the 1960s, when
there were few standards for governing its disposal. It also was used
heavily by the semiconductor industry to etch computer chips during the
1970s.

Companies and government agencies have spent billions cleaning sites
contaminated by past use of TCE. Industry groups and Defense officials
worry that if the EPA finds the material to be more toxic than
previously believed, further cleanup efforts will be required.

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