On November 18, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency removed ethylene glycol butyl ether (EGBE, or 2-butoxyethanol CAS# 111-76-2) from the Clean Air Act (CAA) List of Hazardous Air Pollutants. The EPA decision means that EGBE will no longer be subject to the CAA's Maximum Achievable Control Technology Requirements, or its residual risk and other requirements. It also creates incentives for industry to use EGBE instead of more toxic solvents. The decision follows a June 15 announcement by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), whose experts reviewed EGBE and found inadequate evidence of carcinogenicity in humans, and limited evidence of carcinogenicity in animals.

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