Posted on June 13. 2023

Executive Summary Quotes

Pat Morrison, Chief of Field Services, International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF)

  • According to the NIOSH Firefighter study, “Fire fighters have a rate of mesothelioma two times greater than the rate in the U.S. population as a whole.”

Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH, American Public Health Association (APHA)

  • Over 40,000 Americans die each year from asbestos-caused diseases, including lung cancer, mesothelioma, and cancers of the larynx and ovaries. Asbestos-related diseases are 100% preventable. To do so, lawmakers must act to prohibit the import and use of all asbestos. 
  • APHA adopted a policy statement in 2019 urging Congress to ban the importation, manufacture, processing, and distribution in commerce of asbestos and asbestos-containing products. The U.S. must catch up to the 70 countries that have already banned it.

Linda Reinstein, Cofounder, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO)

  • Although nearly all U.S. chlor-alkali corporations now support the transition away from asbestos technology, in 2022, OxyChem imported an estimated 300 metric tons of raw asbestos for asbestos diaphragms.  
  • Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now (ARBAN) Act, an amendment to EPA TSCA, will ban the six asbestos fibers – chrysotile, crocidolite, amosite, anthophyllite, tremolite, and actinolite, and the Libby Amphibole (winchite, and richterite) in all conditions of use. 

Greg Russell, Government Relations, International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF)

  • When asbestos becomes airborne when disturbed or damaged by fire, fire fighters can inhale large amounts of these microscopic fibers, increasing their risk of developing an asbestos-related disease such as mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis.

Scott Sutton, CEO, Olin Corporation

  • Olin is the Chlor-Alkali industry leader, and the actions that the Chlor-Alkali industry take are the linchpin to ending the use of asbestos in this country. Olin has a clear path to end the use of asbestos, and we need a couple other industry participants to choose the same path. As only seven percent of the chlorine produced in this country is used for water and wastewater treatment, the asbestos exit path won’t impact that supply to water uses nor even reduce the total supply of chlorine. It is time to end the use of asbestos now.

Bob Sussman, JD, Counsel, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO)

  • With leadership from Olin, we have the opportunity to end asbestos imports by chlor-alkali producers as soon as an asbestos ban is put in place. Stopping imports by this industry and assuring a near-term transition to non-asbestos technology by this one remaining asbestos-using industry in the U.S. would be a landmark step.

James Williams, Jr., Director, Federal Relations, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Inc

  • Asbestos has been classified as causing cancer by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the National Toxicology Program (NTP) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 
  • ACS CAN supports the passage of the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2023 to protect individuals from exposure to asbestos, a known cancer-causing agent.