15th Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization Congressional Staff Briefing Resources (August 2020)

Posted August 25, 2020

15th ADAO Congressional Staff Briefing Resources
August 25th, 2020 Washington, D.C. from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm ET

This briefing is dedicated to Mike, an amazing Mesothelioma Warrior and beloved member of the community, who passed away in April 2020.

ADAO Staff Briefing Video 
ADAO Staff Briefing Executive Summary
ADAO Staff Briefing Presenter Biographies 
ADAO Staff Briefing PowerPoint

Presenters

1. 1. Barry Castleman, ScD, Environmental Consultant 
   2. Lindsay Dahl, Beautycounter 
   3. Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group 
   4. Raja Flores, MD, Chair of the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Mount Sinai School of Medicine 
   5. Arthur L. Frank, MD, PhD,  Professor of Public Health and Chair Emeritus of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia
   6. Liz Hitchcock, Safer Chemicals Healthy Families 
   7. Brent Kynoch, Environmental Information Association 
   8. Richard Lemen, PhD, MSPH, Retired Assistant Surgeon General of the United States
   9. Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH, American Public Health Association 
   10. Linda Reinstein, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization
   11. Bob Sussman, Former EPA Deputy Administrator and Senior Policy Counsel to the EPA Administrator

The Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2019 Resources

• The Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2019 (ARBAN) (S. 717) and (H.R. 1603)
• ADAO Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2019 Position Paper
• ARBAN S. 717 Sponsor and Cosponsors
• ARBAN H.R. 1603 Sponsor and Cosponsors
• ARBAN Legislative Hearing (May 2019)
• ARBAN Manager’s Amendment (November 2019)

Briefing Materials

• • • STUDY: Prevalence of Asbestos-Related Disease Among Workers in Sri Lanka by B. Aseni Wickramatillake, MBBS, MPH, Menaka A. Fernando, BCOM, MPH, and Arthur L. Frank, MD, PhD, Professor of Public Health 
    • STUDY: Racial Disparities in Treatment Patterns and Survival Among Surgically Treated Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma Patients by Naomi Alpert,  Maaike van Gerwen, Meredith Steinberg, Nisha Ohri, Raja Flores, and Emanuela Taioli
    • American Public Health Association: Policy Statement: Elimination of Asbestos (2019) 
    • American Public Health Association: Policy Statement: Elimination of Asbestos (2009)  
    • NEJM: “A Most Reckless Proposal — A Plan to Continue Asbestos Use in the United States” by Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., and Richard Lemen, Ph.D
    • ADAO’s New “EPA’s Failure to Ban Asbestos: The Impact from 1989 – 2019 on Public Health, Environment, and the Economy” Report
    • ADAO 2019 Chlor-Alkali Report
    • EPA Draft Risk Evaluation for Asbestos
      • Docket Submissions
      • ADAO Press Conference Quotes and Video of 12 Asbestos Experts Discussing EPA’s Flawed Draft Asbestos Risk Evaluation

ADAO Educational Resources

1. 1. • ADAO Graphics: “Identifying Asbestos in Your Home” and “How Small Is Asbestos?”       
      • ADAO kNOw Asbestos Website  ||  Hear Asbestos. Think Prevention.                                                                        

Key Asbestos Facts 

1. 1. 1. • Each year, an estimated 40,000 Americans die from preventable asbestos-caused diseases.
         • Asbestos imports, use, and asbestos contaminated consumer products and cosmetics continues.
         • Legacy asbestos exposure continues in homes, schools and workplaces. 
         • In 2019, an estimated 170 metric tons of raw asbestos was imported from Russia for the chlor-alkali industry, the sole user of raw asbestos.
         • As a result of the EPA asbestos ban in 1989 which was overturned in 1991, asbestos imports and use continue even though safer substitutes exist.
         • Nearly 70 countries have banned asbestos.
         • 2013 NIOSH study: “The population of firefighters in the study had a rate of mesothelioma two times greater than the rate in the U.S. population as a whole. This was the first study ever to identify an excess of mesothelioma in U.S. firefighters.”
         • The bicameral Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act (ARBAN) would ban importation and use of asbestos, and asbestos-containing products within one year of enactment, require a legacy asbestos study, and improve chemical data reporting.
         • ARBAN has nearly 70 Members as sponsors and cosponsors.
         • ARBAN is supported by AGs, AFL-CIO, APHA, NRDC, EWG, Beautycounter, and many other large organizations. 
         • ARBAN was voted out of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce (E&C) with a strong bipartisan margin of 47-1 on November 19, 2019.
         • ADAO received documents from Region 10 EPA career staff voicing concerns and disagreeing with Trump’s EPA asbestos policies and implementation of the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act.