This article was published in collaboration with the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit news service dedicated to research on inequality.
        Bath. layer. bike. Kevin Hartley, Drew Wynn and Joshua Atkins were working within 10 months of each other when they died, but they were working on. The items vary, but the reason that shortens their life is the same: chemicals in paint strippers and other products sold in stores. countrywide.
       In grief and fear, their families vowed to do everything they could to prevent methylene chloride from killing another person.
        But in the United States, few chemical plants have suffered a similar fate due to lax worker and consumer protections. So methylene chloride became a serial killer, despite warnings about the dangers of its vapors even before Hartley, Wayne and Atkins were born. Dozens, if not more, have been killed in recent decades without the intervention of any agency.
       After an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and calls from safety advocates, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ultimately proposed a broad ban on the substance’s use in paint strippers.
        It was January 2017, the final days of the Obama administration. Hartley died in April of that year, Wynn in October of that year, and Atkins in February of the following year, at a time when the Trump administration was zealous about deregulation and wanted to eliminate rather than add regulations—especially the EPA environment. The methylene chloride proposal went nowhere.
        However, 13 months after Atkins’ death, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, under pressure, decided to stop retail sales of paint strippers containing methylene chloride. In April, Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule that would ban the chemical in all consumer products and most workplaces.
        “We rarely do this in the United States,” said Dr. Robert Harrison, clinical professor of occupational and environmental medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “These families are my heroes.”
       Here’s how they overcame the challenges to achieve these results and what they would recommend if you’re embarking on a similarly difficult path, whether the situation involves hazardous products, an unsafe work environment, contamination or other injuries.
        “Google everything,” says Brian Wynn, whose 31-year-old brother Drew bought methylene chloride to renovate his South Carolina cold brew coffee shop and walk-in refrigerator. “And reaching out to people.”
        That’s how he found the Public Integrity Inquiry, published two years before his brother’s death, contacting experts and learning everything from where he could buy the product to why the deaths were so hard to track. (Methylene chloride fumes are deadly when they accumulate in enclosed spaces, and can cause heart attacks that look like natural deaths if no one does toxicology testing.)
        Advice from Wendy Hartley, Kevin’s mother: “Academic” is the keyword in the search. There may be a whole range of research waiting for you there. “This will help separate opinions from facts,” she wrote in an email.
        Lauren Atkins, the mother of 31-year-old Joshua, who died while tinkering with a BMX bike fork, spoke with UCSF’s Harrison several times. In February 2018, she found her son dead on the ground with a liter jar of paint stripper lying nearby.
        Harrison’s knowledge of methylene chloride helped her translate her son’s toxicology and autopsy reports into a clear cause of death. This clarity creates a solid basis for action.
        Often, exposure to chemicals can cause long-term health effects in people that may not become apparent for many years. Pollution may be a similar story. But if you want governments to take action to address such harm, academic research is still a good starting point.
       A key source of their success was the family’s connections with groups already working on chemical safety issues and with each other.
        For example, Lauren Atkins found a Change.org petition about methylene chloride products from the advocacy group Safe Chemicals for Healthy Families (now Toxic Free Future) and signed the petition in memory of her recently lost son. Brian Wayne quickly extended his hand.
        Powerful forces have joined forces to fully realize their advantages. Without action from the EPA, these families won’t have to start from scratch by forcing retailers to remove products from their shelves: Safer Chemicals Healthier Families launched its “Mind the Stores” campaign in response to this kind of call.
        They don’t have to figure out agency rules or the inner workings of lobbying on Capitol Hill on their own. Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, and the Environmental Defense Fund have expertise in this area.
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       “When you can put together a team like this … you have a really powerful force,” said Brian Wynn, pointing to the Natural Resources Defense Council as another group actively pursuing the issue.
        Not everyone who is interested in this fight will be able to play a public role in it. For example, immigrants without permanent legal status face a higher risk of workplace hazards, and lack of status may make it difficult or impossible for them to speak out.
       If these families focus all their attention on the EPA, the agency may take no action, especially given the Trump administration’s pushback on regulations.
        They are putting pressure on retailers by “managing their stores” not to sell paint strippers containing methylene chloride to save lives. Petitions and protests worked. Companies including Home Depot and Walmart have agreed to stop.
        They are calling on members of Congress to take action through the Safer Chemicals, Healthier Families and the Environment Fund. They headed to Washington with family photographs in hand. They spoke to reporters and received news reports that further fueled the tension.
        South Carolina senators and a congressman wrote a letter to then-Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. Another congressman raised objections to Pruitt during an April 2018 hearing. Brian Wynn believes all this helped the family arrange a meeting with Pruitt in May 2018.
        “The security guard was shocked because no one came to him,” Brian Wayne said. “It’s a lot like meeting the great and powerful land of Oz.”
        Along the way, the family filed a lawsuit. They used social media to warn people not to put themselves at risk. Lauren Atkins went to hardware stores to see for herself whether they were actually removing methylene chloride products from their shelves as they claimed. (Sometimes yes, sometimes no.)
        If this all seems tedious, you’re not wrong. But the families believe it was clear what would have happened if they had not intervened.
       “Nothing will be done,” Lauren Atkins said, “like it’s never been done before.”
        Small victories multiply. One thing led to another because the family didn’t give up. A long-term perspective is often necessary: ​​Federal rulemaking is inherently slow.
        It may take several years or more for an agency to complete the research needed to propose a rule. The proposal must overcome hurdles before it is finalized. However, any restrictions or new requirements may be phased in over time.
        What allowed families to get a partial ban from the EPA relatively quickly was that the agency put forward the proposal before actually stopping it. But it was two and a half years after Kevin Hartley’s death before the Environmental Protection Agency’s restrictions took effect. And they don’t cover workplace uses, such as the bathtub painting job that 21-year-old Kevin does at work.
        However, within an agency there may be different decisions made by different managers. The EPA’s latest proposal, expected to be adopted in August 2024, would ban the use of methylene chloride in the workplace for most purposes, including bathtub polishing.
        “You need to be patient. You have to persevere,” Lauren Atkins said. “When it comes to someone’s life, especially when it comes to your children, you find it. Straightaway”.
        Making changes is difficult. It can be harder to bring about change because you or someone you love has been hurt, although it can provide comfort that nothing else can.
        “Buckle up, because this is going to be an emotional disaster,” warns Lauren Atkins. “People ask me all the time, as emotional and difficult as it is, why do I keep doing this? My answer has always been and always will be: “So you don’t have to sit back.” my place. So you don’t have to be around me anymore.
        “How do you function when you’ve lost half of yourself? Sometimes I think his heart stopped beating and my heart stopped beating on the same day,” she said. “But because I don’t want other people to go through this and I don’t want other people to lose what Joshua lost, that’s my goal. I’m ready to do whatever it takes.”
        Brian Wynne has similar thoughts and recommends some stress-relieving activities to help you complete a marathon. The gym is his. “You have to find an outlet for your emotions,” he said.
       Wendy Hartley has discovered that activism is healing in itself – through the support of other families and the results they achieve together.
        As an organ donor, her son made a direct impact on the lives of others. It’s heartening to see his legacy extend further onto store shelves and into the halls of government.
       “Kevin saved many more lives,” she wrote, “and will continue to save lives for years to come.”
        If you’re pushing for change, it’s easy to think that lobbyists who spend money maintaining the status quo will always win. But your life experience carries weight that cannot be bought.
        “If you know how to tell your story, and it’s part of your life, then you can do it — and when you can tell that story, good luck, lobbyists,” Brian Wayne said. “We come with a passion and love that is unmatched.”
        Advice from Wendy Hartley: “Don’t be afraid to express your emotions.” Talk about the impact these emotions have on you and your family. “Show them personal impact through photos.”
        “Six years ago, if someone had said, ‘If you screamed loud enough, the government would have heard,’ I would have laughed,” Lauren Atkins said. “Guess what? One voice can make a difference. I think that’s part of my son’s legacy.”
       Jamie Smith Hopkins is a reporter for the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit newsroom that examines inequality.