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Attempts to Ban Asbestos

By the 1960s, researchers had proven that asbestos could cause mesothelioma, so federal agencies began to take steps to better regulate the mineral. In the 1970s, both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) began work to regulate asbestos better and protect people from exposure.

The first step in the right direction came in 1970, when the Clean Air Act was amended to include asbestos on its list of hazardous air pollutants. In the 1970s, OSHA also began to establish regulations to protect workers, which became more strict with time. The EPA gradually gained more authority to better regulate toxins like asbestos, but only a few laws actually came close to laying out a plan for a full ban of the toxin.

1970: Clean Air Act amended to include asbestos as hazardous air pollutant.

1976: The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) passes, giving the EPA the power to regulate how toxins like asbestos are manufactured, used, and disposed.

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) sets standards for inorganic material levels in drinking water.

1980: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) establishes Superfund sites, allowing the federal government to oversee cleanups of these sites that have been contaminated with hazardous materials

1989: The EPA issues the Asbestos Ban and Phase-Out Rule (ABPO), which would have banned the importation, manufacturing and sale of asbestos-containing products.

1991: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturns the Asbestos Ban and Phase-Out Rule. The EPA did not appeal the ruling, though later received clarification that asbestos-containing products that were not manufactured, imported or processed on July 1989 (when ABPO was issued) are subject to the original ABPO rule. That ruling continues today as no “new uses” of asbestos are allowed.

Throughout the years, it’s clear not much progress toward an actual ban has been made. All of these bills and other asbestos regulations passed over the years helped keep the presence of asbestos down, but that only does so much for public safety. The reality is that millions of people are still being exposed to asbestos today. Because of the nature of these diseases, it takes decades after exposure for symptoms to show. Estimates say at least 20 million Americans will develop mesothelioma in their lifetime. A ban could help change those statistics.

Progress Toward an Asbestos Ban

Since 1991 when the bill that would ban asbestos was overturned, there really hasn’t been much progress made toward a ban. In 2002, Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash., introduced the Ban Asbestos in America Act. It was repeatedly blocked in Congress, until 2007 when an updated version passed unanimously through Senate.

The bill, also known as the Murray Bill, would have prohibited the importation, manufacturing, and distribution of asbestos. Unfortunately, again the bill couldn’t make it beyond the House of Representatives even after it became more water downed throughout the process.

It wasn’t until June 2016 that advocates saw a step in the right direction when former President Obama signed the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act to amend the often criticized TSCA. The new act established a lot of promising changes to the TSCA


PROMISING CHANGES TO THE TSCA
Required safety reviews of chemicals currently on the market
Required safety reviews of new chemicals before they can reach the market
Grants the authority to regulate a chemical based solely on its health and environmental risk, which addresses the limitations the EPA faced in regulating asbestos
Sets enforceable deadlines for these reviews and recommendations of needed action
Removes the requirement of choosing the “least burdensome” regulations for industry, though the EPA still must analyze cost factors to help guide their decisions
Increases transparency around chemical information for the public
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