August 2, 2023
The following statement is from Linda Reinstein, president and co-founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), an independent nonprofit dedicated to preventing asbestos exposure through education, advocacy, and community initiatives, in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement that it is seeking peer review on a white paper as part of their Asbestos Part 2 Risk Evaluation.
“The Environmental Protection Agency has been forced to undertake a second asbestos risk evaluation because they failed to listen to their own scientists and take a more comprehensive approach when they first began reviewing asbestos as one of the first chemicals of concern to be evaluated under a stronger Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
As a result, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) took them to court and demanded a full and complete look at the way in which asbestos threatens public safety in the United States. The court sided with ADAO and ruled that the agency unlawfully excluded “legacy uses” and “associated disposal” from TSCA’s definition of “conditions of use.” Because of their initial short-sighted view, the Part 2 evaluation will examine the massive impact of legacy uses and associated disposals as well as five other types of asbestos fibers and asbestos-containing talc that threaten public health and safety. This comprehensive approach is one we have long called for to fully protect public health from this known carcinogen that kills as many as 40,000 Americans every single year. We hope, with their second asbestos risk evaluation, the EPA will listen to the chorus of independent and agency scientists who called for a more complete and comprehensive approach to asbestos risk management in the first place.
The EPA is not scheduled to complete this second evaluation before December 2024 and even then, we fully expect any rule they put forth to be challenged in court by those that profit from the continued importation and use of asbestos at the expense of public health and safety. This is why, while ADAO continues to urge EPA to do its job and protect the American people from toxic substances like asbestos, we also urge Congress to end the asbestos scourge now and pass the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act which will end the commercial importation and use of all types of asbestos.”
Response to EPA Advances Asbestos Part 2 Risk Evaluation, Seeks Peer Review on White Paper
ABOUT ADAO
Founded in 2004, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is the largest independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the U.S. dedicated to preventing asbestos exposure and eliminating asbestos-related diseases through education, advocacy, and community initiatives.