WASHINGTON — Chemical company Royal DSM announced that it will phase out N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) by July 2020 as part of the company’s new sustainability strategy. The company has also committed to “phase out all chemicals of high concern from our finished products by 2025.”
The U.S. EPA under the reformed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is reviewing NMP. In January 2017, the EPA proposed banning NMP in paint removal products, but the Trump EPA has since shelved the proposal. Over the past year, 13 major retailers, including Lowe’s, The Home Depot, Walmart, and Amazon, have pledged to ban the sale of paint removal products containing NMP and methylene chloride.