Posted on October 18, 2018

This week the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued its Fall 2018 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Action, which is the OMB’s regular attempt to put all the new and final rules proposed by Federal Regulatory Agencies into one place for public viewing. Within the agenda are 150 new regulations proposed by the EPA among which can be found its much-contested Asbestos Significant New Use Rule (SNUR), a rule the EPA issues to give advance notice about the new use of a chemical with potential harm to human health or the environment.

ADAO followers may remember the SNUR from our recent article detailing the EPA’s requests to the fact-checking site, Snopes.com, to change its rating of the new SNUR from Mostly True to False. Snopes.com declined the request, and it is essential to understand why. According to Snopes.com, “The EPA had proposed a new rule for asbestos that would (at first) block some currently unregulated but inactive uses of asbestos while (later) providing a framework for those unregulated uses’ formal approval should they pass a safety review.” What is significant here is that the EPA is essentially providing these “inactive uses” with a pathway back into the market when an outright ban would better serve the public. Unfortunately, the EPA seems content with this loophole and will proceed to finalize the rule in January of 2019.

The EPA has tried to minimize the danger of the SNUR and has instead chosen to double down on its insistence that this is a step in the right direction. In an FAQ meant to dispel concerns, the EPA claims that the SNUR will not only “broaden” its restrictions on asbestos, but also allow it to prevent imports of these inactive uses. At one point, the FAQ even deflects and takes a dig at the Obama administration, a diversionary tactic which has become a favorite tool of the polluter-friendly Trump administration.

Nearly 40,000 Americans die each year from asbestos-related diseases that the EPA could prevent if it would do their job and ban asbestos without any loopholes or exemptions.  

Enough. 

Linda Reinstein
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