FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 18, 2021
EXPERTS URGE CONGRESS TO ACT NOW TO BAN ASBESTOS
Congressional Briefing Highlights Human Cost of Asbestos Exposure
Washington, DC — Today the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) held its 16th bipartisan Congressional Staff Briefing. The annual event brings medical, scientific, and public health experts together to share the latest updates to staffers and Members about the urgent need to ban asbestos imports and use in the United States.
“ADAO continues to urge Congress to protect public health and ban asbestos imports and use in the United States, as more than 70 other countries around the world have already done,” said Linda Reinstein, co-founder and President of ADAO. “Every day we wait to act is another day when Americans remain at risk of disease and death from asbestos exposure. And as we continue to navigate the coronavirus pandemic, asbestos-disease patients are at an elevated risk of developing and dying from severe Covid. We can’t wait any longer,” she continued.
“There is no safe level of exposure to asbestos, a known carcinogen,” said 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, “Asbestos can cause disease and death when its microscopic fibers become dislodged and airborne,” he explained to staffers.
“Each year, over 40,000 Americans die from preventable asbestos-caused diseases,” said Richard Lemen, PhD, MSPH, Retired Assistant Surgeon General of the United States. “For decades, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has urged the United States to ban asbestos, but for decades this plea has fallen on deaf ears. Now is the time to change that,” he continued.
The previous Congress introduced the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act (ARBAN) and voted it out of committee with overwhelmingly bipartisan support of 49-1 in November 2019. However, the bill failed to receive a full vote in Congress and the coronavirus pandemic has further delayed its progress.
“We supported the 2019 ARBAN legislation alongside 19 state attorneys general, the AFL-CIO, International Association of Fire Fighters, National Resource Defense Council, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Environment Working Group, and many other organizations,” said Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH, a member of the American Public Health Association (APHA). APHA supports strong and comprehensive legislation to ban the manufacture, sale, export, and import of asbestos, and to address the serious threat from legacy asbestos,” she added.
“Firefighters are twice as likely to suffer from mesothelioma as the U.S. population as a whole,” said Greg Russell of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF). “The science is as clear as the threat — and we can stop this needless suffering with a ban on asbestos imports and use and a dedicated effort to reduce the risks of legacy asbestos,” he urged.
Raja Flores, MD, Chair of the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Mount Sinai School of Medicine put it plainly: “Members of Congress can do more with a pen than I can with a scalpel.”
“EPA’s inability to ban asbestos after three decades sends a clear message that Congress must show leadership and finally put an end to asbestos importation and use,” said Robert Sussman, ADAO counsel and EPA senior official in the Clinton and Obama Administrations.
In 2020, an estimated 300 metric tons of raw asbestos was imported from Russia and Brazil for the chlor-alkali industry, the sole user of raw asbestos. Congress can end this unnecessary practice with a vote. It’s time to put public health ahead of corporate greed and ban asbestos in the United States.
For more details on the briefing, including expanded statements by the speakers, please visit: https://bit.ly/3x309pW
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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 to eliminate asbestos-related diseases through education, advocacy and community initiatives.
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