Posted on September 27, 2020
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is thrilled to announce that the bicameral Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2019 (ARBAN) will be voted on by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, September 29. You will be able to watch this landmark vote on C-SPAN. ADAO will send an update once we know more about timing.
This comes on the heels of the annual Mesothelioma Awareness Day, held on September 26. Each year, nearly 40,000 Americans die from preventable asbestos-caused diseases, yet imports and use continue. Asbestos has and continues to place hard working Americans at risk for disabilities, disease, and deaths. The human, social, and financial cost to each life lost is incalculable, but with the passage of ARBAN, we will take a landmark step forward to prevent asbestos exposure.
ARBAN will stop hundreds of metric tons of asbestos from entering the United States each year and will protect Americans from being exposed to the deadly threat of asbestos found in homes, schools, workplaces, and on consumer shelves. ARBAN will also pave the way for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to better regulate toxins in cosmetics.
ADAO sincerely thanks Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Ranking Member Greg Walden (R-OR) Subcommittee Chairman Paul Tonko (D-NY), and Ranking Member John Shimkus (R-IL); along with Representative Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), and many others, for their hard work and commitment to advance ARBAN on a bipartisan basis. Congress Members and their staffers have worked tirelessly to get the life-saving bill to this point and we are infinitely grateful. Once passed by the House, we look forward to supporting Senator Senator Steve Daines’ (R-MT) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) as they move the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act through the Senate.
On Tuesday morning, I will hold a Facebook live conversation at 11 a.m. ET in which I will answer your questions about the ARBAN, which will ban asbestos, a known carcinogen that causes numerous deadly diseases.
H.R. 1603 would accomplish several critical public health objectives:
- It would ban the importation and use of asbestos, and asbestos containing products within one year of enactment.
- Chlor-alkali plants using asbestos diaphragms would need to eliminate the use of asbestos and convert to non-asbestos technology following a ten-year transition period.
- The bill would establish a new Right-to-Know program to require current importers, processors, and distributors to report and disclose to the public how much asbestos is in U.S. commerce, where and how it is used, and who is exposed.
- The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) would conduct a comprehensive study of risks presented by “legacy” asbestos used in building construction decades ago but still present in millions of residences, businesses, factories, public buildings, and schools.
- The presence of asbestos contaminants in consumer products and construction materials would be stringently controlled.
- The hazardous Libby Amphibole form of asbestos, found in attic insulation in millions of homes, would be covered by the ban.
Last year on Mesothelioma Awareness Day, ARBAN was passed out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee with a strong bipartisan vote of 47-1. We expect the same strong bipartisanship on Tuesday. We then expect the Senate to affirm that it is past time for the U.S. to join the nearly 70 countries that have already banned asbestos to protect their citizens from this known carcinogen.
The bill has nearly 70 cosponsors and over 30 national and international organizations and unions supporters. Since last November, three different letters were sent to Speaker Nancy Pelosi signed by supporters of the bill; nearly 40 scientists and experts; and ADAO. We also released a new video featuring thirteen asbestos experts with a combined 300 years of experience who joined in the call to Congress for a ban.
We urge you to email your Representative before the House vote on Tuesday and tell them to vote “yes” on H.R. 1603!
In unity,
Linda Reinstein