Staging a comeback: Asbestos

EPA moves to walk back—or delay—hard fought asbestos ban

You’d be forgiven if you thought that the U.S. banned the carcinogenic material asbestos back in the 1970s. We did not.

The 90s? Nope.

The 2000s? Well, we stopped producing it in 2002, but we didn’t stop importing it and using it in everything from roofing and textiles to automotive parts and chlorine manufacturing. 

It wasn’t until March of last year that the EPA finally banned the manufacture and importing of the last type of raw asbestos in use, chrysotile asbestos, aka “white” asbestos. While it allowed some manufacturers 12 years to phase it out (a long runway considering the over 40,000 asbestos-related deaths annually in the U.S), it was a huge win for public health. 

The win was a result of decades worth of campaigning from public health leaders like Linda Reinstein the President of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), the powerhouse public health organization working on behalf of victims of asbestos related disease, like mesothelioma. 

Trump’s EPA asks courts for 30 more months to review asbestos ban

This past Monday, June 16, the Trump Administration issued a court filing to delay the ban and consider lifting it. The American Chemistry Council, the industry’s biggest lobbying group, supports the move. In fact, the court filing was signed by Lynn Ann Dekleva, a former American Chemistry Council employee who is now a deputy assistant administrator at the EPA.

The reasoning behind the 30 month delay and possible rollback were to review the work protection provisions for certain chemical manufacturing applications along with an assessment to see if a ban is needed at all (or if there are different pathways besides banning asbestos). That’s all fancy words to say they want to rollback the ban, not pause to assess it to better protect public health.

Photo by Codioful (Formerly Gradienta) on Unsplash

Using the courts to delay asbestos bans is an old—effective—tactic

We’ve been here before. In my upcoming book, Cleaning House, I explain how the EPA tried to do the right thing in 1989 and ban asbestos because of its direct link to the cancer mesothelioma. It should have been a slam-dunk. 

But our leaky federal law, in this case TCSA (the Toxic Substances Control Act), had a loophole: If the EPA could not show that banning a toxic substance was the least expensive approach to protect public health, they could not ban a toxic chemical. In other words, if was too expensive for manufacturers to replace a deadly substance, they didn’t have to do it.    

In 2016, thanks to decades and decades of lobbying by health advocates, scientists, parents and professionals like myself, TSCA got an important update: It replaced the cost-benefit safety standard with one that used a health standard to determine whether a toxic chemical should be pulled from the market. It was a huge step forward that opened the door to ban asbestos once and for all. 

Monday’s news is deflating to so many people who have fought to keep our buildings, homes, and workplaces safer. It’s a slap in the face to fire fighters, who make up a big percentage of deaths from mesothelioma—they are exposed to asbestos when they race into fire- and smoke-damaged buildings to save lives. 

Asbestos is banned outright in 70 countries, including—for now—the U.S. 

Let’s keep it that way.

One of the biggest lessons I learned when I was lobbying for improvements to TSCA on Capitol Hill was that your voice matters. It only takes 10 phone calls to a member of Congress—via the Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121—to get their attention on an issue.

And every communication—phone call or email—must be recorded as a matter of law. Those beta-looking contact forms on the member of Congress’s website? Use them—they’re a direct line to the staffers. Please reach out to your representative in Congress and let them know you don’t want asbestos back in our homes and our lives. 

And follow and donate to the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, working on the frontlines and the lead organization fighting the proposed rollback of our federal asbestos ban.  

Reinstein weighed in on the ruling,

“The United States was starting to catch up, but the Trump EPA is delaying and rolling back this vital public health safeguard, undermining this progress. I will continue to explore all options—including legislation—to phase out all dangerous asbestos fibers and provide stronger protections for our health.”

At a time where the science of environmental health has become politicized and deemed “anti-science” by many prominent social media influencers, we can’t let the dismissers obfuscate this critical public health issue.

We can’t go back.