On Monday, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) shared
“The Trump Administration’s ‘Polluters over People’ agenda is once again threatening our health, this time undermining the chance for all Americans to have a future free of asbestos exposure. We know that asbestos is a killer, which is why it has been banned in more than 50 countries around the world.
“The United States was starting to catch up, but the Trump EPA is delaying and rolling back this vital public health safeguard, undermining this progress. I will continue to explore all options—including legislation—to phase out all dangerous asbestos fibers and provide stronger protections for our health.”
New York Times: E.P.A. Plans to Reconsider a Ban on Cancer-Causing Asbestos || The Trump administration’s move sets back a decades-long effort to end the use of the material, which is widely banned in other countries by Hiroko Tabuchi
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 16, 2025
ADAO EXPRESSES ALARM ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY’S PLAN TO GUT 2024 CHRYSOTILE ASBESTOS RULE
EPA’s Rollback Threatens Lives — Every 13 Minutes, Someone Dies from Preventable Asbestos Disease
According to its filing, EPA will consider removing the rule’s bans on the importation and use of asbestos in the production of chlorine and the installation of new asbestos-containing sheet gaskets in petroleum, chemical, power production, and nuclear facilities.
As requested in the motion, the new rulemaking would take 30 months, and it is not certain whether EPA will continue to enforce the 2024 rule’s bans on importing and using asbestos during that process. ADAO is opposing the EPA’s motion to put the pending lawsuit on hold and will ask the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to continue reviewing the 2024 rule.
“This is a serious setback for public health that creates more unnecessary chaos and confusion,” said Linda Reinstein, President and Co-Founder of ADAO. “The 2024 rule bans the importation and use of an important type of asbestos, but the planned rollback would reverse this progress and move the nation backward, once again putting lives at risk. EPA’s own science confirms that asbestos is deadly, even at low exposures. Each year, 40,000 Americans die from preventable asbestos-caused diseases. Workers and families cannot afford more exposure to the dangers of asbestos as a result of the EPA gutting protections it has already deemed necessary for public health,” she stated.
“EPA’s backpedalling on banning asbestos runs counter to the intent of the 2016 Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, which was passed in recognition of the original law’s inability to ban asbestos and sought to give EPA the tools to eliminate use of this dangerous substance in American industry finally.,” said Bob Sussman, ADAO counsel and former EPA official. “Every 13 minutes, someone in the U.S. dies from an asbestos-caused disease. Rolling back the 2024 rule rewards corporate interests and reverses the bipartisan progress in public health protection that Congress sought to achieve in 2016.”
As EPA conducts rulemaking to rollback its 2024 rule, ADAO remains unwavering in its mission to eliminate asbestos exposure and disease and will oppose weakening the rule.
“ADAO will renew our call for the swift passage of the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now (ARBAN) Act, which bans all importation and use of asbestos fibers. We will continue to collaborate with lawmakers, scientists, and communities to demand permanent protections against the dangers of asbestos for all Americans,” said Reinstein.
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