Gina McCarthy, the 13th administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and William K. Reilly, the EPA’s 6th administrator, are urging lawmakers to pass a recently submitted bill that would ban asbestos in the United States. They cite decades of attempts to limit this dangerous material and the devastating number of fatalities and injuries caused by asbestos in support of their recommendation.
About Asbestos
Asbestos is a toxic mineral that was once present in many materials used in the daily lives of Americans, including drywall, roof shingles, joint compound and other items. It is still allowed in certain products in the United States today, including:
- Automotive products
- Construction materials
- Toys
- Cosmetics
Scientists first began raising concerns about possible health problems linked to asbestos in 1906. Researchers stated in the 1930s that one out of every four workers who made products that contained asbestos had signs of asbestosis. In the 1960s, the link between asbestos exposure and cancer was well-known. However, the United States remained one of the top five global consumers of the product until the late 1980s despite knowing these risks.
Asbestos is responsible for 40,000 deaths in the United States every year and a lifetime of complications that correspond to mesothelioma, asbestosis and other asbestos-related conditions.
EPA’s Response to Asbestos
After trying to create a plan for nearly a decade, the EPA enacted a seven-year timeline to ban most uses of asbestos in 1989 under the Toxic Substances Control Act. However, the asbestos industry challenged the rule by filing suit and a federal appeals court overturned the ban in 1991. This decision limited the EPA to banning asbestos only for those industries that were not part of the lawsuit.
In 2016, the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act was passed with bipartisan support. This law gave the EPA the legal authority to address exposure to harmful exposures and removed obstacles that had prevented the EPA from taking action on asbestos, such as the cost-benefit analysis. However, the EPA is not using the tools Congress provided it to ban asbestos, according to the former EPA administrators.
The EPA under the Trump Administration began evaluating the risks of asbestos, but it excluded certain uses and pathways of exposure in its assessment, including:
- The potential dangers of asbestos located in homes from construction materials installed before the 1980s
- Exposure risks to firefighters who enter burning buildings that contain asbestos
- Existence of asbestos in children’s products such as crayons
Additionally, the EPA did not consider scientific research related to cancers that are linked to asbestos, including ovarian cancer, stomach cancer, esophagus cancer, larynx cancer, colorectal cancer and pharynx cancer.
The Trump Administration also made it easier to import products that contain asbestos by only requiring importers of asbestos-containing products to notify the EPA before discontinued uses of asbestos are resumed instead of permanently banning them from entering the country.
Global Response to Asbestos
Approximately 70 countries have banned asbestos completely. They have substituted safer and more economical alternatives that asbestos used to provide.
Former EPA Administrators’ Reaction to Current Asbestos Policies
The former administrators report that the United States imported twice the amount of asbestos in 2018 than it did in 2017, largely due to supporting the manufacture of chlorine and caustic soda at fifteen chemical plants that have not converted to safer and more cost-effective alternatives. They believe that the United States should follow the lead of other countries and ban asbestos once and for all. They urge Congress to pass the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act and this law will be the only way to definitively stop the continued manufacture of asbestos products.
