NAS Faults DOD’s TCE Risk Methods, Renewing Focus On Key EPA Study

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is criticizing the Defense Department’s (DOD) approach for developing a new occupational exposure limit (OEL) for the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), including DOD’s decision to exclude a controversial study EPA has used to set TCE risk values to protect against fetal heart malformations. NAS’ findings appear to be a setback for chemical industry groups, who were hoping that NAS would back DOD’s exclusion of the controversial study -- which showed congential heart defects (CHD) from...