Posted on May 21, 2020

The Honorable John Barrasso
307 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
The Honorable Thomas R. Carper
513 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

RE: “Oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency” (EPA) with EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler

Dear Chairman Barrasso and Ranking Member Carper,

On behalf of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), thank you for holding today’s Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works full committee hearing entitled, “Oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency” (EPA).

ADAO is deeply concerned that since the Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (LCSA) was signed and enacted into law by President Obama on June 22, 2016, EPA has failed to address the continuing threat that asbestos poses to public health. Asbestos is a known carcinogen and there is no safe level of exposure. Each year, 40,000 Americans die from preventable asbestos-caused diseases yet imports and use continue.

Under the 1976 version of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), EPA issued a sweeping ban of most uses of asbestos in 1989, but the ban was overturned by a reviewing court because of limitations in the law.  LCSA was intended to remove TSCA’s impediments to effective regulation of chemicals. During nearly a decade of legislative discussions, asbestos was always highlighted as the poster child for the need to reform TSCA and it was widely expected that the revised law would finally enable EPA to ban asbestos.

ADAO has worked hard to achieve this objective since EPA identified asbestos as one of the initial 10 substances to undergo risk evaluations in late 2016. We have had numerous meetings with EPA and submitted extensive documentation to the docket. However, there is growing concern that EPA’s efforts under TSCA will not result in strong, comprehensive and science-based safeguards against asbestos exposure. 

These concerns were unfortunately confirmed on March 30, 2020, when EPA released a deeply flawed draft of its risk evaluation for asbestos. This draft is disappointing and inadequate in several basic respects:

  • The draft evaluation does not address the risks of legacy asbestos products contained in millions of buildings across the US, despite a ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last year that EPA is obligated to evaluate these risks.
  • The evaluation only examines one type of asbestos fiber – chrysotile – while there are six recognized commercial asbestos fibers.
  • EPA only looks at the risks of lung cancer and mesothelioma, and does not consider other types of cancer (ovarian and laryngeal), or serious non-cancer diseases (asbestosis) that are known to be caused by asbestos
  • EPA has ignored the documented presence of asbestos contamination in talc-based crayons and other common consumer products to which infants and children are exposed.
  • EPA has excluded all environmental pathways of exposure, including air emissions, contaminated waste, and drinking water contamination, further underestimating risk.
  • EPA has excluded Libby Amphibole asbestos which is contained in attic insulation   found in 15 – 30 million homes.

The EPA has had more than 30 years to study the risk of asbestos, a known carcinogen that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, and take action. Despite this, they are on track to fail Americans again thanks to the many deadly exclusions in the draft risk evaluation that will make effective protection against exposure to asbestos impossible.

ADAO and the scientific community are ready to present EPA with the proper information they need to do the right thing — develop a truly health protective risk evaluation that documents the serious, ongoing threat of asbestos to public health and ban this lethal carcinogen. We truly hope that today’s hearing will hold the Agency responsible for protecting public health and our environment and implementing true and meaningful TSCA reform.

Sincerely,

Linda Reinstein
ADAO President and Co-Founder