The Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule Wednesday that officials say will “close the door” on potential new uses of the dangerous chemical asbestos.
The rule, first proposed last August, requires companies to get EPA approval to domestically manufacture or import products using asbestos. It’s intended to make it difficult, if not impossible, for manufacturers to resume using asbestos in products where it is no longer used, such as in roofing, plastics, and pipelines.
“Prior to this new rule, EPA did not have the ability to prevent or restrict certain asbestos products from being reintroduced into the market,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in statement. “This new rule gives us unprecedented authorities to protect public health from domestic and imported asbestos products and gives us the ability to prohibit asbestos products from entering or reentering the market.”
Alexandra Dunn, who leads EPA’s Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Office, told the Washington Examiner the agency is not aware of any current proposal by companies to bring back old uses of asbestos, or to propose new ways to use it. But she said EPA’s action is meant to be “proactive” and “protective” just in case.
“Given what know about the risks of asbestos and given the strong statement we are making today, we don’t expect these uses to come back into the marketplace,” Dunn said in an interview. “We think that will be a strong deterrent to anyone trying to bring these uses forward.”
Asbestos has long been used in a variety of building construction materials, and in a range of manufactured goods, because of its strength and heat-resistant qualities. Exposure to asbestos, however, increases the risk of developing lung disease and lung cancer, according to the EPA.
The Environmental Working Group says between 12,000 and 15,000 Americans die from asbestos-related illnesses every year.
The EPA banned some uses of asbestos in 1989, but a federal appeals court overturned the ban on some product categories.
That has allowed asbestos’ continued use in certain industries, including in auto manufacturing, oil and gas development, chemical manufacturing, and for producing chlorine. The EPA plans to initiate a separate rulemaking, to be finalized by the end of this year, to conduct a risk evaluation on the ongoing uses of asbestos to see if they threaten workers and the public.
Dunn said the agency could decide to ban asbestos in all its ongoing uses by the end of that evaluation, if industry cannot find a way to mitigate the risks.
“EPA is very concerned about any exposure to the public, but particularly to the workers who might be exposed if they are working in these industries,” Dunn said. “It is quite possible we take another step. One of the outcomes could be a ban.”
Some environmental groups accused the EPA of not going far enough, urging the agency to immediately outright ban asbestos in all its uses.
“This action is a only a stopgap measure and a half step at best,” said Melanie Benesh, legislative attorney at the Environmental Working Group, in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “If EPA is serious about protecting Americans from asbestos exposure, EPA should quickly release its full risk assessment under [the Toxic Substances Control Act] and issue a total ban on all uses of asbestos. That is the only way to ensure this deadly carcinogen can never be allowed on the market again.”
But Dunn says the Toxic Substances Control Act, a law updated by Congress in 2016, requires the EPA to conduct a risk evaluation process before completely banning ongoing uses of chemicals like asbestos.
“By the end of 2019 we will complete the circle of evaluating the risk of asbestos exposure to the public and workers, and taking some of the most aggressive actions protecting the public from asbestos exposures in 30 years,” Dunn said.
