EPA Withdraws Proposed Acrylamide Rule

09 December 2002 00:00  [Source: ICB Americas]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has withdrawn a proposed rule that would have prohibited the manufacture, importation, distribution and use of acrylamide and N-methyloacrylamide (NMA) grouts.

In 1991, the EPA proposed the rule in order to prohibit grouters from neurotoxic and carcinogenic risks arising from significant skin and inhalation exposure to the acrylamide and NMA in these grouts.

The EPA found that grouters were exposed when using these grouts, even while wearing the best practical personal protective equipment (PPE) available at the time the rule was proposed.

In a Federal Register notice, the agency says it has found that "there is now affordable PPE that provides adequate protection from exposure to the acrylamide and NMA in these grouts."

The agency says it has determined that as long as appropriate PPE is used during grouting operations, it is no longer necessary to prohibit the use of these grouts for health reasons.

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