Two mothers are suing the Environmental Protection Agency after their sons died from inhaling a toxic paint stripper while doing housework.
Lauren Atkins and Wendy Hartley filed the lawsuit on Monday, saying the agency has failed to ban methalyne chloride since proposing to do so in 2017.
Yet the chemical, found in paint strippers and cleaning products, has been declared a probable carcinogen by at least three federal government organizations.
The mothers are hoping the lawsuit will compel the EPA to ban the dangerous substance and prevent anymore avoidable deaths from occurring.
Lauren Atkins (right) is one of two mothers suing the Environmental Protection Agency after her son Joshua, 31 (left), died in February 2018 while he was refinishing his BMX bike
Wendy Hartley's son Kevin, 21 (left, with Wendy) died in April 2017 while he was refinishing at bathtub at an apartment he was working on
Lauren told CBS News that her son Joshua was 31 years old when he died in February 2018 after being exposed to methylene chloride.
Joshua was refinishing the fork on his BMX bicycle in the bathroom at his mother's house in Pennsylvania.
'I went up and knocked on the door and he didn't respond. So I opened the door and I found [his body],' she told the network.
That same year, in April, 21-year-old Kevin Hartley was refinishing a bathtub in an apartment he was working on in Nashville, Tennessee, when he went into cardiac arrest, according to a GoFundMe page.
He was rushed to the hospital but, one day later, doctors found he had no detectable brain function and pronounced him dead.
Joshua was using Rust-Oleum's Aircraft Remover and Kevin was using Napco White Lightning Low Odor Stripper during their respective jobs.
Both products contain the chemical methylene chloride.
It is found in easy-to-obtain products including paint strippers, metal removers, and metal degreasers.
However, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the World Health Organization and the EPA considers methylene chloride to be a probable carcinogen.
An estimated 1.3 million Americans are exposed to the chemical each year either in their homes or places of work, primarily by inhalation or skin contact, according to the EPA.
Joshua had been using Rust-Oleum's Aircraft Remover (left) and Kevin had been using Napco White Lightning Low Odor Stripper (right), both of which contain methylene chloride. High exposure has been
