Sign the petition calling on the EPA to ban deadly asbestos now without industry exemptions.
Posted on April 24, 2018
ADAO has a message for the Environmental Protection Agency and its Administrator, Scott Pruitt, and it is this: ban asbestos without exemptions now!
The EPA’s Problem Formulation Document, which is how the EPA will evaluate the risk of asbestos, presently excludes legacy asbestos products and the Libby Amphibole insulation which is estimated to be in over 30 million homes.
Americans deserve to have their home, air, soil and water free from deadly toxins. Parents are terrified and angry that children’s toys and make-up contain asbestos contaminated talc. Many people wrongly believe asbestos is safe, even President Donald Trump.
Asbestos-caused diseases are preventable. According to According to Dr. Jukka Takala’s research, asbestos-related diseases cause 39,275 deaths in the United States annually—more than double the previous estimates of 15,000 per year.
ADAO and others have been working to reform TSCA for more than a decade. Collectively, we have testified at congressional hearings, met with EPA staff, attended EPA public meetings, sent many letters, and submitted evidence into the docket. We are urging the EPA to review the document we submitted with over 100 studies confirming there is no safe or controlled use of asbestos.
The fact that asbestos is still legal and lethal in our country today is a crime. The industry is continually getting away with murder. It’s been know for over 100 years– that asbestos kills — yet imports and use continue. In fact, The Department of the Interior and Johns Manville produced a video, “Asbestos – A Matter of Time” in 1959 signing the praises of asbestos.
President Obama clearly stated before he signed the TSCA reform bill into law that this bill should empower the EPA to finally get the job done and ban asbestos. The facts are irrefutable, asbestos kills.
The American Chemistry Council is lobbying the EPA again for another exemption. Look at the science — the only folks supporting asbestos mining, imports, and use are the profiteers and the Chlor-Alkali industry. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported, “The chloralkali industry, which uses asbestos to manufacture semipermeable diaphragms that prevent chlorine generated at the anode of an electrolytic cell from reacting with sodium hydroxide generated at the cathode, accounted for nearly 100% of asbestos mineral consumption in 2017.”
It is time for EPA to take action and fully evaluate the risk of asbestos in our homes, schools, and workplace. It is time for the EPA to do their job to ban asbestos now to end the deadly asbestos man-made disaster.
Click here to join the nearly 12,000 people who have signed the petition to ban asbestos now without exemptions or loopholes!
Enough.
Linda