US EPA Adopts Final Rule Regulating the Solvent Carbon Tetrachloride

SG 188/24

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a final rule to regulate use of the solvent carbon tetrachloride. However, it allows most continuing current uses if workplace protection requirements are met.

On December 18, 2024, the EPA issued a final rule (89 FR 103512) to regulate the use of the solvent carbon tetrachloride (CTC, CAS No. 56-23-5). This comes after the EPA’s proposed rule in July 2023 and a subsequent comment period.

Carbon tetrachloride is one of the first 10 chemicals placed under review by the agency in 2016. The EPA is tasked with evaluating these chemicals for potential risks to human health and the environment under the amended Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). If the risk evaluation determines an unreasonable risk posed by a chemical, the agency is required to mitigate that risk. Following this process, the EPA has already proposed rules for N-methylpyrrolidone and 1-bromopropane (SG 96/24, SG 131/24) and finalized rules for asbestos, methylene chloride, trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene (SG 77/24, SG 186/24, SG187/24).

The solvent is already banned for consumer product uses under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA). Furthermore, requirements under the ‘Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer’ (Montreal Protocol) and the Clean Air Act phased out CTC production in the United States for most uses. Remaining uses are mostly centered around the chemical’s function as a feedstock to make other chemicals, including refrigerants, aerosol propellants and foam blowing agents.

The final rule allows most of the current chemical’s uses to continue if provisions under the Workplace Chemical Protection Program as outlined in the rule are met. Those CTC uses include, but are not limited to, the chemical functioning as a reactant in the production of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs) and perchloroethylene (PCE), as well as its use as a processing aid in the manufacturing of agricultural products and vinyl chloride. Businesses will have 36 months to implement the Workplace Chemical Protection Program.

Only a few uses, such as the use of CTC in metal recovery and as an additive in fuel and plastic components used in the automotive industry, will be prohibited by June 16, 2025.

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