E.P.A. Leaders Disregarded Agency's Experts in Issuing Asbestos Rule, Memos Show

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

E.P.A. Leaders Disregarded Agency’s Experts in Issuing Asbestos Rule, Memos Show

By Lisa Friedman
May 8, 2019

WASHINGTON — Senior officials at the Environmental Protection Agency disregarded the advice of their own scientists and lawyers in April when the agency issued a rule that restricted but did not ban asbestos, according to two internal memos.

Because of its fiber strength and resistance to heat, asbestos has long been used in insulation and construction materials. It is also is a known carcinogen. Last month’s rule kept open a way for manufacturers to adopt new uses for asbestos, or return to certain older uses, but only with E.P.A. approval.

Andrew Wheeler, the E.P.A. administrator, said when the rule was issued that it would significantly strengthen public health protections. But in the memos, dated Aug. 10, more than a dozen of E.P.A.’s own experts urged the agency to ban asbestos outright, as do most other industrialized nations.

“Rather than allow for (even with restrictions) any new uses for asbestos, E.P.A. should seek to ban all new uses of asbestos because the extreme harm from this chemical substance outweighs any benefit — and because there are adequate alternatives to asbestos,” staff members wrote.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/08/climate/epa-asbestos-rule-scientists.html

[Dustlawyer]

1. +1!!! I have handled thousands of asbestos cases in my career.

This is insane! There is no safe limit for asbestos. One fiber can cause mesothelioma.

I have been in living rooms, kitchens, and back porches all over the country meeting with dying men and women and their families. Many of the asbestos product manufacturers knew in the early 1930’s and they all covered it up, killing generations of workers.

There is no benefit great enough to justify the horrible illness and death of innocent victims.