The US bans the last type of asbestos still in use

The Biden administration on Monday finalized a ban on the only type of asbestos still used in the United States, the first time since 1989 that the federal government has taken steps to significantly limit the toxic industrial material.

The Environmental Protection Agency regulations would ban the use, production and import of chrysotile asbestos, which has been linked to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer that forms in the lining of some internal organs.

Chrysotile is the only crude form of asbestos known to be currently imported, processed, or distributed for use in the United States. The mineral is known as white asbestos and is used in roofing materials, textiles and cement, as well as gaskets, clutches, brake pads and other automotive parts. It is also an ingredient in diaphragms used to make chlorine.

In some ways, the ban is a weaker version of a proposal the agency announced in 2022 that would require a two-year phase-out for most commercial applications.

The final rule would require the import ban to take effect as soon as the measure takes effect. But companies can have 12 years to phase out the use of asbestos in production, depending on the location. The change followed lobbying efforts by companies such as the Olin Corporation, a major chemical manufacturer, as well as trade groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Chemistry Council.

It would remain legal to import other types of asbestos, but companies would have to notify the EPA in advance and the agency would have the authority to deny these imports.

“With today’s ban, EPA is finally closing the door on a chemical so dangerous that it has been banned in more than 50 countries,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in a call with reporters. “President Biden understands that this concern spans generations and has impacted the lives of countless people.”

Health care advocates who have fought for decades to ban all forms of asbestos said the new rule was insufficient. They noticed that there was asbestos an estimated 40,000 deaths per yearj in the United States. Mesothelioma disproportionately affects firefighters because they are exposed to asbestos through damaged buildings and are at much greater risk of developing the cancer than the general population.

“While closing the door on the import of chrysotile is a historic step, the EPA rule does not restrict the import and use of five other recognized asbestos fibers,” said Linda Reinstein, president and founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. “We are also alarmed that the rule allows an unnecessarily long transition period and creates inconsistent compliance deadlines for certain asbestos users, allowing dangerous exposure to chrysotile asbestos to continue for years.”

One of the biggest threats is so-called legacy asbestos, which comes from decades of rampant use of the product in construction, building insulation and the production of many products, Ms. Reinstein said.

The American Chemistry Council, a lobbying organization, had been asking for fifteen years to phase out the use of asbestos. The council said eliminating the use of asbestos in the production of drinking water treatment components would “substantial harm to America’s drinking water supply and create an unwarranted alarm for products in the market that are essential to ongoing climate, sustainability and infrastructure projects .”

Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator of the EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said Monday that these concerns were echoed when the agency wrote its final rule.

She said the agency has considered whether the original two-year time frame “could have resulted in extended closures of some of the facilities that make the chemicals we need to purify our drinking water, and that’s why we’re taking some extra time have built in for the actual conversion of those facilities.”

Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring fibrous minerals that are resistant to heat, fire and electricity. First used in construction in the 1930s, it became ubiquitous as an insulator in schools, hospitals, homes and offices, as well as in consumer products.

In the 1960s and 1970s, researchers began to associate it with health problems. Inhaling asbestos fibers, even in small amounts, can cause irreversible scarring of the lungs and malignant mesothelioma.

The EPA under first President George Bush tried to ban the use of asbestos in 1989, but the attempt was overturned by federal courts in 1991. However, the ruling did maintain a ban on new uses of asbestos. As a result, and because of the potential legal liability, the use of asbestos declined.

Asbestos production in the United States stopped in 2002, but it is still imported and used in the production of household bleach, bulletproof vests and electrical insulation, as well as in automotive products.

Between 2019 and 2022, Brazil supplied about 70 percent of all asbestos used in the United States and Russia about 30 percent, according to a study Report of the United States Geological Survey Mineral Commodity Summaries.

The ban is the first legal restriction on a deadly substance since 2016, when Congress updated and strengthened the legislation. 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act by requiring the testing and regulation of thousands of chemicals used in everyday products.

A 2020 review by the EPA found “unreasonable risks to human health” associated with diaphragms, sheet gaskets, rupture blocks and other products made with asbestos.

The rule announced Monday stands in stark contrast to the position of the Trump administration, which fought legislation that would have banned asbestos and imposed a policy that EPA’s own scientists said would have allowed industries to continue its use.

Former President Donald J. Trump, now on the run to retake the White House from Mr. Biden, falsely declared asbestos “100 percent safe” in his 1997 book, “Trump: The Art of the Comeback,” and claimed that the movement to remove asbestos ‘was led by the mafia, because it was often mafia-related companies that did the asbestos removal.”

Should Mr. Trump win in November, he could potentially roll back or weaken the ban, although the legal process could take two to three years or more.

That’s one reason why Congress should pass laws to quickly ban all forms of asbestos, said Sen. Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, who has introduced a bill to ban the importation of all asbestos. “At least we’re finally acting, big hurray for that,” Mr. Merkley said in an interview. “But legislation will end the use of asbestos more quickly, and it will continue to do so.”