Latest news with #asbestos
The Verge
15 hours ago
- Health
- The Verge
Posted Jun 18, 2025 at 4:14 PM EDT
Make asbestos OK again? The Trump administration is thinking about scrapping a ban on white asbestos, a material used in roofing, chlorine manufacturing, and more. White asbestos is banned in many countries; exposure to it has been linked to lung cancer and other serious health risks. 'By siding with corporate polluters and willfully ignoring decades of public health evidence, they are dismantling life-saving protections,' Michelle Roos, executive director of the Environmental Protection Network, said in a press release today.
Gizmodo
17 hours ago
- Politics
- Gizmodo
Trump EPA May Undo Cancer-Causing Asbestos
Who needs regulations on things with clear ties to mesothelioma? In 2024, the Biden administration issued a ban on the last type of asbestos still used in the United States due to its links to cancer. The Trump administration isn't so sure that we need to protect people from such things. Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that Trump's Environmental Protection Agency will delay the ban on the material and reconsider the rule entirely. Because, hey, when has a little cancer ever hurt anyone? The material at the core of this back-and-forth policymaking is chrysotile asbestos, otherwise known as 'white asbestos.' While it has been on the way out for a while, it's far from eliminated. White asbestos is still used in some roofing materials, textiles, cement and is found in brake pads and other automotive parts. It is also sometimes used to make chlorine. Its usage continues despite the fact that the material has been linked to lung cancer, ovarian cancer, laryngeal cancer, and mesothelioma, which is a cancer in the linings of the lungs, abdomen, heart, or testicles. The EPA estimates that asbestos exposure is linked to more than 40,000 deaths in the United States. For those reasons, more than 50 countries have already banned the use of the material outright. The U.S. joined their ranks in 2024, when the Biden administration announced a ban on it last year, though even that had a very long lead time before it actually went into effect. Under the rule introduced by the EPA under Biden, the white abestos ban had a 12-year-long phase-out period, meaning it wouldn't have truly been banned in full until 2036. But how's a chemicals manufacturer supposed to operate with more than a decade of heads up? It's just too much to ask. Might as well just kill the rule entirely. The Times reported that the Trump administration is considering reworking the rule to lift the ban on the import and use of asbestos in chlorine production and the use of sheet gaskets that contain asbestos in chemical manufacturing facilities. If you're wondering why the Trump administration would back off on this rule that seems like a pretty obvious no-brainer, especially for the administration that claims it wants to make America healthy again, there's a relatively simple answer available: the lobbyists run the show. Per the Times, the court filing from the EPA indicating that it is reconsidering the rule was signed by Lynn Dekleva. Before joining the administration, Dekleva was an official for the American Chemistry Council, where she lobbied to block regulations on the carcinogen formaldehyde. And before that, she spent 32 years at DuPont, a company repeatedly identified as a major producer of dangerous 'forever chemicals.' Now she's in charge of approving chemicals for use at the EPA. Good luck to the rest of us.
BBC News
a day ago
- Health
- BBC News
South Shields asbestos campaign prompted by family deaths
A man who lost four family members to asbestos-related cancer has backed an MP's campaign to have the potentially deadly material removed from all public Shields Labour MP Emma Lewell used a Commons debate to press the government to create a register of UK buildings containing asbestos and plan for its grandad John Henry Richardson died in 1998 from asbestosis - a hardening of the lungs - after working in the area's shipyards, while her constituency has one of the country's highest death rates from contact with the Turnbull, from Washington, supported Lewell's call with the plea: "We've got to really get it out there how dangerous it is." Mr Turnbull has seen asbestos take a terrible toll on his mother died from mesothelioma in 1979, aged 72, and his brother and uncle also succumbed to the same cancer. All three worked at the now closed Turner and Newall factory in Washington which made products containing asbestos. But the biggest blow for Mr Turnbull was the loss of his wife, Jean, who died aged 62 in 2009. "When she was young he used to play with other children on big white heaps near the factory," he said. "They were huge, like the white heaps of Dover. "There was a mass of asbestos all over, and not a single warning sign anywhere."Turner and Newall went into administration in 2001 after being overwhelmed by compensation claims, but some payments have been made to former workers and local residents. 'Biggest work-related killer' Research by Asbestos Information CIC, a group that represents industry experts, found 63 people in South Shields died with mesothelioma between 2018 and 2022, with Lewell's constituents eight times more likely to die of that specific cancer than in a road high rates in the region have been linked to the use of asbestos in traditional industries, but Lewell is concerned more cases could be developing because of its continued presence in an estimated 1.5 million buildings across the UK."We know that it's in our public buildings, we know it's in some schools and hospitals, but we don't actually know which ones," she said."That's why we need a national register or census so we can get it out of those buildings. "This is still the biggest work-related killer in the UK."Across the country, asbestos exposure causes about 5,000 deaths each year. Mr Turnbull, who now runs a support group for people with mesothelioma and their families, said it was vital asbestos was not just seen as a problem of the past."I think the idea of a register is brilliant. The cost would be phenomenal so I worry it will never happen," he said."But, if they made a start, at least that would be something. We've got to really get it out there how dangerous it is." Asbestos Information CIC estimates the material could be present in more than 24,000 buildings in the South Shields constituency and Lewell wants any government census and removal programme to begin in the town because of its high death rates."I don't want to see anyone go through what my lovely grandad and our family went through," the MP said."To watch someone breathe their last breath simply because of the job they did is not right."We're seeing a prevalence of school teachers and people who worked in hospitals now becoming ill because of asbestos. "The problem is this is not just going to be part of our history, but part of our future as well and it doesn't need to be." In the Commons debate, Department for Work and Pensions minister Stephen Timms said there was already substantial information about the presence of asbestos in public he acknowledged more work was needed and praised Lewell and others calling for more action."My honourable friends are right to make the case for the goal of an asbestos-free Great Britain and to make the case for a plan for it to be removed across the country," he said."I look forward to further discussions with them and I agree there is a great deal we still need to do." Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
WIRED
2 days ago
- Automotive
- WIRED
The EPA Plans to ‘Reconsider' Ban on Cancer-Causing Asbestos
Jun 18, 2025 5:07 PM President Donald Trump has supported use of asbestos in the past and blamed the mob for its bad reputation. Photograph:Despite touting ambitious goals of making America healthier, the Trump administration on Monday revealed in court documents that it is backpedaling on a ban on cancer-causing asbestos. Last year, under the Biden administration, the Environmental Protection Agency took a long-awaited step to ban the last type of asbestos still used in the US—chrysotile asbestos, aka 'white asbestos.' While use of chrysotile asbestos was on the decline, the dangerous mineral has lingered in various gaskets, brake blocks, aftermarket automotive brakes and linings, other vehicle friction products, and some diaphragms used to make sodium hydroxide and chlorine. With the ban, the US joined over 50 other countries around the world that had banned its use due to health risks. Generally, asbestos is known to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, ovarian cancer, and laryngeal cancer. Asbestos exposure is linked to more than 40,000 deaths in the US each year, the EPA noted at the time. 'The science is clear—asbestos is a known carcinogen that has severe impacts on public health. President Biden understands that this [is a] concern that has spanned generations and impacted the lives of countless people. That's why EPA is so proud to finalize this long-needed ban on ongoing uses of asbestos,' Michael Regan, EPA administrator at the time, said in a statement. '100 Percent Safe' While the move was decades in the making and hailed by health proponents, it still allowed companies a generous period to phase out use of asbestos—in some cases up to 12 years. That didn't stop industry from taking legal action against the regulation shortly after the EPA's announcement. The litigation, brought by a number of companies and trade groups, including the American Chemistry Council, has been ongoing since then. On Monday, the EPA, now under the Trump administration, filed court documents saying that it 'now intends to reconsider' the ban, and it 'expects that this process, including any regulatory changes, will take approximately 30 months.' The EPA asked the court to suspend the court case in the meantime. The filing included a declaration in support of the reconsiderations from new EPA Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Lynn Ann Dekleva, who until last year worked as a lobbyist and director for the American Chemistry Council. As Ars reported last year, there was always concern that another Trump administration would work to overturn the ban; Trump supports the use of asbestos. In his 1997 book The Art of the Comeback , Trump wrote that asbestos is '100 percent safe, once applied' and blamed the mob for its reputation as a carcinogen, writing: 'I believe that the movement against asbestos was led by the mob, because it was often mob-related companies that would do the asbestos removal.' Trump's support for asbestos has been welcomed in Russia, a primary asbestos supplier to the US. In 2018, a Russian asbestos company began marketing asbestos with Trump's face and a seal reading 'Approved by Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States.' This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.
Fast Company
2 days ago
- Politics
- Fast Company
The Trump administration is trying to bring back asbestos
Since President Trump took office in January, his administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been on a deregulation spree. So far, the agency's leaders have expressed interest in rolling back regulations around forever chemicals, or PFAs; reversing a cornerstone finding that greenhouse gases are dangerous for public health; and weakening enforcement of coal ash regulations. This week, new court documents indicate the EPA has set its sights on walking back protections from another toxin: asbestos. Based on court documents released on Monday, the EPA intends to 'reconsider' a ruling, passed by the Biden administration in 2024, that banned chrysotile asbestos, the last form of asbestos used legally in the U.S. Per a release issued at the time of the ruling, 50 other countries had already banned chrysotile asbestos, which is most commonly used in the industrial process of making chlorine and on components in the automotive industry. 'The action marks a major milestone for chemical safety after more than three decades of inadequate protections and serious delays during the previous administration to implement the 2016 amendments,' the Biden administration wrote. 'Exposure to asbestos is known to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, ovarian cancer, and laryngeal cancer, and it is linked to more than 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.' Now, in response to a petition from the Texas Chemistry Council, it's possible that chrysotile asbestos will once again be a permissible manufacturing material. According to the new court documents, 'EPA leadership has reviewed the Asbestos Rule and now intends to reconsider the Rule through notice-and-comment rulemaking,' noting that this process, including any regulatory changes, is expected to take approximately 30 months. This won't be the first time that a Trump administration has tried to bring back asbestos. In 2018, his first administration's EPA enacted a 'SNUR' (or Significant New Use Rule) allowing the manufacture of new asbestos-containing products to be petitioned and approved by the federal government on a case-by-case basis. Strangely enough, Trump himself also wrote in his 1977 book Art of the Comeback that he believed asbestos bans were a conspiracy 'led by the mob, because it was often mob-related companies that would do the asbestos removal.'
