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Hazardous Wastes EPA Puts Workers and Environment In Danger Ed Hopkins from the Sierra Club testifies against the EPA's published draft rule to exempt industrial laundry companies from federal hazardous and solid waste requirements. Recently, the Bush Administration published a draft rule that puts workers, communities and the environment at risk from toxic solvents. The EPA published a draft rule to exempt industrial laundry companies from federal hazardous and solid waste requirements for "shop towels" contaminated with toxic chemicals. Many industries such as printing facilities and manufacturing shops use specialized industrial wipes soaked in solvents to clean machinery and other equipment. According to EPA's own research, as many as 164,000 businesses in the U.S. use about 3.8 billion shop towels soaked in toxic solvents each year. Most of these rags are sent to laundries to be "cleaned" of the solvents and returned. Solvents on shop towels pose serious health risks that fall most heavily for the laundry workers and drivers who often handle towels in cloth bags or other open containers. For example, benzene is a recognized carcinogen, developmental and reproductive toxin. Laundry drivers and washroom workers report routinely suffering illnesses from their exposure to these solvents. When laundries dump these chemicals into their wastewaters, it can cause serious air and water pollution. Instead of helping workers and the environment by proposing meaningful protections, the Bush administration's new proposal favors industry by exempting laundries from federal hazardous waste handling rules. UNITE website Sierra Club Press Release: Hearing Today on the Bush Administration's Proposal to Weaken Toxic Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club