Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule to require comprehensive reporting on asbestos imports, use, and disposal. When finalized, the rule will require “manufacturers and producers of certain types of asbestos and asbestos-containing articles (including as an impurity) in the last four years to report certain exposure-related information, including quantities of asbestos manufactured or processed, types of use, and employee data … the proposed rule also covers asbestos-containing articles (including as an impurity) and asbestos that is present as a component of a mixture.”
Today’s announcement comes as a result of work by our coalition partners at the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), which led a legal challenge to the Trump EPA’s denial of a petition to make sure EPA gathered all of the information necessary to evaluate and eliminate the serious risks of cancer and lung disease that this extremely dangerous chemical substance poses to the American public.
We were glad to join ADAO and partners at American Public Health Association (APHA), Center for Environmental Health (CEH), Defend Our Health (formerly Environmental Health Strategies Center), and Environmental Working Group (EWG), and eleven state Attorneys General in the legal action.
As EPA moves forward to evaluate and manage all forms and uses of asbestos, this rule should result in the complete and accurate information that the public is entitled to, and that EPA needs, for the best possible understanding of asbestos risk and exposure to effectively protect the public from this deadly chemical substance.
For more information, see the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization press release.
Director of Safer Chemicals Healthy Families, Toxic-Free Future's federal policy program
Liz Hitchcock is director of Toxic-Free Future’s federal policy program. She leads advocacy efforts with Congress, EPA and other federal agencies.
