Posted on September 18, 2020

On August 28, 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency’ (EPA) Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) released their hard-hitting independent report. The report confirmed what many asbestos experts and stakeholders had already concluded: that the EPA’s work to date in banning asbestos has been a disaster. The asbestos draft risk evaluation, the underlying document drafted to guide their process, was  deemed to be fundamentally flawed. It dangerously understates the serious risks of asbestos to public health.  Nearly 40,000 people die each year in the U.S. from these deadly yet preventable diseases.

The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act was signed into law and finally gave EPA the authority to protect Americans and ban asbestos.  Instead, EPA has failed again and again.  

Now, because of these failures, the ban on asbestos will take years to complete. In the meantime, Americans will continue to be at risk from asbestos-caused diseases. Here are five of the most important takeaways from the SACC report and why they show the overwhelming need for Congress to pass the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act (ARBAN).

Top five reasons the EPA’s asbestos evaluation is on track to fail Americans again:

  1. Americans will remain at risk to exposure just by going about their everyday lives. Asbestos will continue to be found in homes, schools, workplaces, and even on consumer shelves, as it does not address asbestos-contaminated talc found in cosmetic products.
  2. The SACC report confirmed our position that the EPA draft risk evaluation was dangerously narrow. It ignored  all but one asbestos fiber, chrysotile, leaving Americans at risk from the other five asbestos fibers that are not examined in the draft evaluation. 
  3. Libby Amphibole insulation can be found in millions of homes. EPA does not address this at all in the risk evaluation. 
  4. EPA will remain ill-informed about the chemical companies who import and use allowing more Americans to be exposed to deadly asbestos 
  5. The evaluation failed to consider known asbestos health effects of many asbestos-caused diseases, and only would focus on lung cancer and mesothelioma leaving many patients unprotected. 

September is Mesothelioma Awareness Month, and we must all educate ourselves on the devastating diseases this toxin causes. 

Without a ban, Americans will remain at risk of deadly asbestos exposure. Nearly 70 countries around the world have already taken this step but the US has lagged behind. However, ARBAN provides Congress with a unique opportunity to eliminate this known carcinogen once and for all. 

ARBAN would ban all asbestos imports and use within the first year of enactment, would provide Americans with the right to know where asbestos is imported and used, and would study legacy asbestos found in structures. It already has bipartisan support in the U.S. House of Representatives, where it passed out of the Committee on Energy and Commerce back in November with a strong vote of 47-1. Senators Steve Daines and Jeff Merkley are waiting to pass their own version of the bill in the Senate once it is passed in the House. 

Join us in urging Congress to do what EPA has not: ban asbestos once and for all and protect the health and well-being of Americans, both immediately and in the future. 

Together, we will make a difference. 

Linda Reinstein

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