WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency today announced a final rule to ban use of the only known form of asbestos imported into the U.S. – a vital action to shield consumers from the toxic substance one study says kills nearly 40,000 Americans every year.
It’s the first ever substance that the EPA has successfully banned using new authority Congress gave the agency in 2016, when it reformed the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA.
The Environmental Working Group has long called for banning asbestos, which many Americans are surprised to learn remains legal for commercial use. The rule follows EWG’s years of advocacy on the issue, including important research uncovering the use of asbestos in imported crayons and crime scene kits for kids, as well as talc-based consumer products.
“We commend President Biden and his EPA for their decisive action in finally banning this form of asbestos,” said EWG President and Co-founder Ken Cook. “The relentless toll of asbestos-triggered diseases has robbed countless Americans of their lives and continues to leave thousands of families grieving for the loss of loved ones every year.
“The lives destroyed by asbestos represent one of the most tragic public health crises in history,” said Cook. “And, while nothing can be done to alleviate the pain of those families who have lost loved ones, today’s action is a crucial step in ensuring chrysotile asbestos will never again be allowed to be brought into the U.S. and used in commerce.”
EPA’s efforts to tackle asbestos
The EPA first tried to ban asbestos in 1989 using authority in the original TSCA, enacted in 1976. But most uses of asbestos remained legal after the agency lost a court challenge to the ban in 1991.
As a result of that ruling and new burdens it created for regulation, the EPA largely stopped trying to regulate existing chemicals under the original TSCA. Concern over continued legal uses of asbestos was a major driving force behind the 2016 TSCA overhaul.
The EPA released the proposed version of the asbestos ban in 2022, and EWG said at the time it marked a significant step forward for the agency’s authority under the revised TSCA.
It then took public comment on the proposal and crafted the final version of the ban, which it sent for mandatory White House pre-publication review in December. The White House completed that review on March 11, clearing the path for the EPA to finalize the rule.
The rule is limited to ongoing uses of asbestos based on the EPA’s evaluation of non-legacy uses. The proposed rule is also limited to one type of asbestos, chrysotile.
‘EWG applauds this step’
“No administration has done more to protect us from the terrible harms caused by asbestos fibers,” said EWG’s Senior Vice President for Government Affairs Scott Faber. “EWG applauds this important step to save lives from the harms caused by this asbestos fiber and, more broadly, applauds the Biden EPA for breathing life into our chemical safety laws.”
Faber joined EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator of the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, at a press event Monday announcing the rule.
In a recent campaign that included a billboard in New York’s Times Square, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization and the International Association of Fire Fighters called on Congress to go further on asbestos. They want lawmakers to pass pending legislation to expand beyond restrictions on chrysotile asbestos imports, addressing all types of asbestos to combat the pervasive threat posed by legacy asbestos in existing infrastructure.
Lawmakers did address asbestos-contaminated talc in cosmetics in the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 by directing the Food and Drug Administration to “establish and require standardized testing methods for detecting and identifying asbestos in talc-containing cosmetics products.” The law required the FDA to propose standards by December 2023, but the agency has missed that deadline.
EWG’s asbestos advocacy
For decades, EWG has joined the calls to eliminate asbestos from the marketplace because of its health risks. Several years ago, EWG released an analysis of federal mortality data estimating that, at the time, asbestos-triggered diseases killed an estimated 15,000 Americans a year.
In 2004, EWG’s Action Fund released the findings of a six-month investigation into asbestos in the U.S., uncovering an epidemic of asbestos disease and mortality that affects every state and virtually every community. While most of those individuals were workers exposed decades ago, the fact asbestos had not been banned meant more than 1 million people were exposed to asbestos on the job. Millions more were being exposed to asbestos in the environment.
One year later, EWG released another analysis revealing that from 1948 to 1993, more than 5.8 million tons of asbestos-contaminated ore from Libby, Mont., was shipped to 236 different addresses in 39 states. This created asbestos “hot spots” throughout the U.S., from coast to coast, increasing the potential health harms in communities receiving the ore.
Crucial step forward
EWG’s research not only found asbestos in talc-based cosmetics and imported crayons and toy crime scene kits but also in a talc-containing eye shadow in a children’s toy makeup kit.
Although the U.S. has been able to ban certain asbestos-containing products, such as wall compounds and insulation, other items, like brake pads, could still be made using the substance. And the lack of a ban on imported products containing asbestos meant that consumers could not be certain if the toys, cosmetics and other purchases they buy came with asbestos.
That’s why the EPA’s new final rule is such a crucial step forward in the ongoing fight to eliminate asbestos, as it will cut off one of the biggest sources of exposure in the U.S.
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The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.
