Can confirm. I was an electronic tech in US government work in the 1980's. We routinely used MEK (methyl ethyl keytones) to clean circuit boards, with zero protections. We got these weird requests to confirm we did this of our own free will in the late 80's. Then, in the 2000's, similarly weird requests to confirm we "knew the risks". If you complied, you were guaranteed VA coverage.
Anectodally, strange rates of lower gastric, bladder, and other carcinomas in in my peer group.
Same thing happened to a lot of workers who worked with Asbestos. My dad, his brother, many of their friends got a few thousand bucks in the 80s if they agreed to never sue. A lot of them died a decade or so later from mesothelioma.
I'm especially disappointed with my case, as organic solvents are almost all historically known aggressive carcinogens. This was not a case of "not knowing", even the 80's. I suspect similar for asbestos, coal dust, etc in that time period.
Asbestos was a known harmful substance since at least 1970, but it took until 1989 to fully ban it. A lot of companies knew the risks, but didn’t care, which is why you see 6 figure lawsuits still happening, finding the companies guilty of negligence.
Their defense is “we didn’t know!”, but luckily judges are seeing through that.
I found this out when my mom had asbestos in her house a couple years ago:
In cities, OUTDOOR asbestos levels can be higher than indoor level simply because asbestos is still legal to use in car brakes. Since so many cars still use them and the parts are actively "wearing" due to friction, this releases enough asbestos to up the levels above indoor.
While perhaps legal I don't think I have seen a set of asbestos brake pads in my years since working on my own car (15+ years). Perhaps they are still made but I think you would really have to go out of your way to get them. Someone correct me if I am wrong.
The two rounds of forms to sign are pretty curious then.
To counter your .gov link:
"The principal health effects most typically associated with organic solvent exposure include nervous system damage (central and peripheral), kidney and liver damage, adverse reproductive effects such as sperm changes and infertility, skin lesions, and cancer."
The key statement on your source is "Individual solvents may cause one or more of these."
There are some solvents that are really dangerous. My comment is just that methyl ethyl ketone isn't one of them. It's very similar to acetone, which your body creates by itself when it breaks down fats.
Now that's not to say you shouldn't try to limit exposure (you'd be stupid not to), but in the grand scheme of solvent toxicity, MEK is one of the safer ones.
Anectodally, strange rates of lower gastric, bladder, and other carcinomas in in my peer group.