Posted on June 5, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Linda Reinstein, president and co-founder of The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), issued the following statement in response to the  fourteen Attorneys General who submitted comments to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler urging the EPA to revise the Draft Risk Evaluation for Asbestos. 

“The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization is grateful to the fourteen Attorneys General who continue to pressure the Environmental Protection Agency to revise their draft risk evaluation for asbestos so that it covers the full threat this deadly and carcinogenic chemical poses to Americans. More than 40,000 Americans die from asbestos-related diseases every year and yet, the EPA continues to carve out exceptions and loopholes to satisfy a small number of chemical corporations at the expense of public health. Their inaction is unacceptable, which is why we’ve urged Congress to pass the Alan Reinstein Asbestos Now Act (ARBAN) and ban asbestos in the United States for good.”

Background:

  • The Attorneys General from Massachusetts, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia called on EPA to: “revise its approach to evaluating the risks posed by asbestos to comply with its obligations under Toxic Substance Control Act  (TSCA) and obtain the information it has admitted it needs to conduct the necessary, thorough evaluations of the risks presented by asbestos before issuing any final asbestos risk evaluation.
  • Last year, these Attorneys General petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to require reporting on asbestos imports, uses and exposure so that EPA would have sufficient information to conduct its risk evaluation. This petition followed an earlier petition by ADAO seeking mandatory TSCA reporting requirements. EPA denied both petitions and the AGs and ADAO have challenged those petition denials in federal court.  
  • The AGs have also said the agency’s evaluation fails to properly characterize asbestos’s conditions of use, including legacy uses. This approach “squarely violates TSCA and does not conform to a federal court’s ruling from late last year,” their letter states. 
  • EPA Administrator Wheeler admitted in a recent testimony that EPA would not be addressing legacy asbestos in its risk evaluation, and instead may issue a separate evaluation for legacy asbestos sometime in the future. The AGs have sent two previous letters regarding asbestos prevention and policy. One letter on January 31, 2019 “Calling on EPA to Issue New Rule for Asbestos Reporting and another letter on July 12, 2019, 18 Attorneys General Speak Out in Support of Bill to Ban Asbestos in the United States.

The Attorneys’ General who signed the June 2 letter to EPA Administrator Wheeler are:

  • XAVIER BECERRA Attorney General of California
  • MAURA HEALEY Attorney General of Massachusetts
  • CLARE E. CONNORS Attorney General of Hawaii
  • AARON FREY Attorney General of Maine
  • BRIAN E. FROSH Attorney General of Maryland
  • GURBIR S. GREWAL Attorney General of New Jersey
  • LETITIA JAMES Attorney General of New York
  • ELLEN F. ROSENBLUM Attorney General of Oregon
  • THOMAS J. DONOVAN, JR. Attorney General of Vermont
  • ROBERT W. FERGUSON Attorney General of Washington
  • KARL A. RACINE Attorney General for the District of Columbia
  • PETER F. NERONHA Attorney General of Rhode Island
  • KWAME RAOUL Attorney General of Illinois
  • KEITH ELLISON Attorney General of Minnesota