Montana Standard Editorial Board: “Montana senators should take the lead on asbestos ban”
Posted on December 16, 2018
In the Montana Standard’s “Montana senators should take the lead on asbestos ban“ piece published on Sunday by its Editorial Board, the Montana Standard established itself as the first major U.S. news publication in several decades to declare support for a nationwide asbestos ban. The historic editorial, a formal statement of the boards position on this issue, is a tremendous boost to the efforts of asbestos safety advocates worldwide. The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization celebrates this achievement and thanks the Standard for upholding its long legacy of reputable, ethical, and vital journalism.
As the editorial makes clear, there is not a more appropriate backdrop for this breakthrough moment than the state of Montana. It is home to one of the biggest asbestos exposure sites in the world – a defunct vermiculite mine in the town of Libby, Montana – which sees more and more residents diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases every year. Its Congressional delegation includes dedicated allies of the anti-asbestos movement, most notably in Senator Jon Tester, one of the fiercest advocates for asbestos safety on Capitol Hill. Most importantly, it has served as a kind of patient zero for the country’s public health crisis surrounding this carcinogen: as the Standard Editorial Board points out, an estimated 15 million homes across the United States contain potentially-contaminated insulation materials from Libby.
ADAO joins the Standard in calling on the Montana Congressional delegation to act immediately on asbestos. ADAO thanks Senator Jon Tester (MT-D) for his leadership and support and urges Senator Steve Daines (MT- R) to expand his stance on this carcinogen from one of localized support for individual Montanans to one that takes responsibility for the safety of all Americans. When the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2019 is presented to the 116th Congress, we hope Senator Daines´ name will be included among the list of co-sponsors.
As the Montana Standard’s editorial view shows, the movement for a no-loopholes, no-exemptions asbestos ban is stronger than ever. With the combined power of national media exposure, a dedicated grassroots foundation, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, an asbestos-free world is within our grasp.
Montana Standard Editorial Board: “Montana senators should take the lead on asbestos ban”
Many people think the importation, use and sale of asbestos, one of the world’s most dangerous known substances, is illegal in this country.
That would be a reasonable assumption. After all, more than 60 countries worldwide have banned it.
Indeed, the Environmental Protection Agency tried to ban asbestos in the late 1980s, but industry legal action managed to thwart that effort.
Then, as a new version of TSCA, the Toxic Substances Control Act, was passed in 2016, backers of a ban had new hope. Asbestos was placed on the list of the first 10 chemicals that EPA would evaluate for a potential ban.
But in 2016, we elected a president who has said that asbestos is “perfectly safe when correctly applied,” and refuses to believe or acknowledge its toxicity. After two years, EPA is slow-walking the evaluation of asbestos, while imports soar.
Russia and Brazil are the largest exporters of asbestos to the United States.
In one month of 2108, trade records indicate more than 250 metric tons of the substance was imported, mostly for use in the choralkali industry. And we are no closer to an asbestos ban than we were when TSCA was passed more than two years ago.
Meanwhile, asbestos-related disease continues to kill nearly 40,000 people a year in this country.
Right now, under EPA rulemaking, the location of the factories where all that imported asbestos is being used is considered “confidential business information.” So nobody knows for sure where the asbestos is going, what factories are using it, how waste is being disposed of, or anything else about a projected 500-plus metric tons being brought into the country each year.
Also now, an estimated 15 million houses nationwide – could be less, could be more – have Zonolite loose-fill insulation from Libby – highly contaminated with asbestos – in their attics and walls. And an unknown number of schools and public buildings also still have the deadly mineral in their innards.
Several things need to be done, and done quickly.
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, an advocacy organization for victims of the deadly disease and their supporters, has worked on legislation to ban asbestos and recently petitioned the EPA to make public the information regarding imported asbestos. And that petition to EPA can and should be supported by all three members of the state’s congressional delegation. Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler, who visited both Butte and Libby recently, should certainly understand how important this effort is.
And although The Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act (named after a victim of mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer) will not pass this session, it will be reintroduced in the next Congress.
Montana’s senators can and should play a key role.
Jon Tester and Steve Daines already have done much, particularly for affected Libby residents. Both Tester, a Democrat, and Daines, a Republican, have pushed hard for funding for Libby’s asbestos-related disease clinic.
Tester was a co-sponsor of the previous asbestos-ban bill.
In the next Congress, we believe it is important for both Tester and Daines to co-sponsor the asbestos-ban bill, and mount a bipartisan push for its passage.
That bill should include a mandated survey of existing buildings across the country for Zonolite and other asbestos contamination – a step the EPA was once close to taking, but backed off on.
Montana’s terrible asbestos legacy — nobody knows when incidence of asbestos-related disease, or mortality from it, will even peak in Libby, where more cases are being diagnosed every month — makes it a logical place for action against the substance to be centered.
Tester and Daines have the opportunity to take a giant step — not only for Montana, but for the nation — to repudiate a shadowy industry’s hold on Congress, and to change the paradigm at last to guard American industry and consumers.