"Lowe’s Drops Paint Strippers Blamed in Dozens of Deaths"

"WASHINGTON — Lowe’s, the large home improvement retailer, announced Tuesday that it will no longer sell paint strippers that contain the chemicals methylene chloride and NMP, which have been blamed in dozens of accidental deaths.

The Obama administration, in its final days, concluded that the two chemicals represented “unreasonable risks” and moved to ban them for use as paint strippers. But the Environmental Protection Agency has not enacted the ban.

For now, Lowe’s says it will voluntarily remove from its shelves 19 products that contain either of the chemicals, which go by such brand names as Klean Strip, Goof Off and Jasco, many of them made by W.M. Barr in Memphis, Tenn."

Eric Lipton reports for the New York Times May 29, 2018.